Larry Fine

Who is Larry Fine?

Larry Fine is an American piano technician, consultant, and author. He is best known as the author of The Piano Book.

The Piano Book, as of 2001 in its fourth edition, describes how pianos work, discusses and reviews many brands of pianos, tracks changes in the piano industry worldwide, describes the retail piano industry in America with hints for the buyer on how best to deal with piano stores. It also documents innovations in piano building. The book is written from the viewpoint of the piano technician, and thus often emphasizes aspects of piano quality that make it hard or easy for the technician to keep the instrument in tune and in good working order.

Over the years, the work has been increasingly a collaborative effort, as Fine has a recruited a large number of his fellow technicians to evaluate and report on the pianos that they see in the course of their work.

The book was accompanied by an annual Supplement, which offered updates to tide the book over between major revisions. As of the Fall of 2009 Mr. Fine replaced the annual supplements with a new, semi-annual publication Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer.