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Home of the one and only Fandrich Vertical Action that plays like a grand.
Fandrich & Sons Pianos opened in a small store in Seattle, WA in 1993. It is family owned and operated, since 2000 at our home on 5 acres in the woods near Stanwood, WA. The rise of the internet allowed us to move home, where we have our 2000 sq.ft. workshop and our studio with the finished pianos on display.
Darrell Fandrich, RPT studied violin and piano as a child. He became interested in how pianos worked, and at age 16 studied piano technology at the University of Minnesota's McPhail School of Music, which began a lifelong fascination with how to make pianos more musical. He has put his degree in mechanical engineering to use in developing several innovations that have received significant recognition. See Darrell's resume for more details.
Heather Fandrich began piano lessons at age 5. She studied piano for 8 years, but with less and less diligence, which she now realizes was largely due to an uninspiring practice piano. She got her BA and master's degree in social work and worked in the juvenile justice system for 28 years. She and Darrell met because her father, Robert Jenny, wrote Darrell's first two US patents. Only after she and Darrell were married did she learn that pianos were in her genes--her great, great grand-father was Frederick Mathushek, a noted piano designer and builder in the late 1800's. Her first experience with a musical piano was playing the prototype of Darrell's Fandrich Vertical Action™. Now she fervently wishes she had grown up with a musical piano, as she knows the results of her musical studies would have been quite different.
Regarding the Model 185:

"Thank you for allowing me to use your Fandrich & Sons piano on my latest Jazz Trio CD recording. Your piano has everything a classically trained artist would want: a quick and fluid action; beautiful, singing tone, yet powerfully bold when called upon. The action doesn't control me - I control it. It's heaby enough to respond but light enought that you can execute. It plays itself! You're getting the sweet part of each tone at all volume levels, like the piano is an extension of my brain. To this point it is one of the finest pianos I have ever played. Thanks for all your hard work!"

-- Jim Martinez
Sacramento, CA. www.jimmartinez.com