The Thornton family has passed the craft of piano maintenance and an eye for a good new piano down two generations, writes Rose Doyle

The Thorntons, Jeff and Adrian, are piano men. There have been piano men in the Thornton family for two generations now, and there may well be for a third although no one's pushing the up-and-coming males in the family to join up.

The Thorntons don't tinkle the ivories; that's another breed of piano man. Their talent and expertise is for ensuring that the ivories, as well as strings, sound boards, hammers, dampers and every other part of the instrument, are in the best possible condition for the piano player.

Pianos nationwide have been looked after by Jeff and Adrian Thornton, and their father Des before them, for nearly 40 years in the long, narrow, instrument-packed Thornton Pianos - Upright Piano Reconditioners on Berkeley Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.

Jeff Thornton is the older of the brothers and the one who elects to tell the story. From where we sit there are pianos, old and new (since they sell unused ones too), lining the walls to where the door and window look out onto the busy street. It's a silent room, given the business that goes on there.

Jeff tells things the Dublin story-telling way; chronologically, with attention to detail and the odd digression. The Thorntons are Dubs.

"Des Thornton, my father, was from Cabra and went to work in Piggott & Co, at the bottom of Grafton Street, as a messenger boy in 1947. It was the largest music retailer around at the time - Waltons and McCulloughs were the other big ones. Piggotts had a record department, sold sheet music, portable instruments and all that. The piano department was a significant part of its business. In those days the piano was it, musically speaking, and Piggotts piano tuners would have charge of segments of the county, following up on pianos sold.

"My father moved up the scale and became an apprentice in the piano workshop where he learned the craft of piano restoration and fine tuning and went on to service pianos nationwide. He played the piano too, but never in public. He was a shy individual."

Des Thornton met his wife Joan when she was working in Piggotts too. She'd grown up just around the corner from him but they'd never met. They married in 1960, Joan left Piggotts and they moved to live in Phibsborough. Jeff was born in 1961, and Adrian arrived a little over a year later in 1962.

That might have been that, and a predictable existence for all of them, but for a huge fire in Piggotts in 1967. "It started in a workshop area upstairs," Jeff says, "and spread throughout the building. Afterwards, McCulloughs bought the name for trading purposes and it became McCullough Piggott. My father didn't want to work for the company as it now was; a lot of people left."

In 1967 Des Thornton set up his own business; he would recondition and sell pianos.

"Work was my father's purpose in life," Jeff digresses briefly, "so much so that when he died (suddenly in 2000) the first thing I did was to take a Monday off to collect my son from school. In a family business you work all hours, something myself and Adrian don't want to repeat. And, anyway, I'm not interested in corporate global domination! I'm interested in making a living."

In 1967, Des Thornton imported a small number of pianos from London and started work in a garage off the Cabra Road. His sister Rita came to work with him and trained as a piano technician, French polisher, the lot.

"He acquired this premises in 1973," Jeff says. "It had been a motorcycle shop. He spent a couple of months converting it into a piano showroom and reconditioning workshop. His pal, Gerry Cleary, who'd started with him in Piggotts in 1947, helped to get the place ready. Gerry still calls around to see us."

We're sitting close to a noble and very upright piano, called a Steck, which was built in 1910. "We think it's been tropicalised," Jeff says, "as in built for export. I bet it never travelled though. I bet it stayed in the UK...." and he's digressing again, talking about how piano builders tended to imitate the "German template; the Germans got it right. We restored a Bechstein last year to pristine performance and condition. Having a quality item restored and reconditioned costs a lot less than buying a new one. Also, it'll be perfect and have a history."

So, how much does a new grand piano cost? "A small new grand costs about €8,000 to €8,500. One could be restored for half that."

Jeff says he badgered his father to get out of school at 16, after the Inter Cert, to begin work here. "I started on the princely sum of £10 a week. I'm 29 years here this year. Adrian did his Leaving Cert and joined in 1979. We employed a fellow in the workshop for 18 months but apart from that we were a self-contained family operation until my father's sudden departure in 2000."

In the busiest of those years they produced 200 pianos a year, "between four of us, a piano a week each just to meet the demand. Christmas was the worst time, Santa had to deliver! We were producing pianos to order, colour requests and so on, working mad hours It was very hard but the buzz was good. We don't work on December 24th any more."

When Des Thornton died he took a wealth of knowledge and experience with him. "Business slowed down," Jeff admits. "It took us about 12 months to get things back to where we'd complete control. Aunt Rita retired in 2000 as well.

"We had to refocus and look at things slightly differently. In the years since myself and Adrian have taken on different aspects of the job. We've broadened our range too. You have to sell a range which will work as instruments as well as pieces of furniture."

He's seen musical, and furniture, fashions come and go. "In the 1980s there was a move into old fashioned furniture. We were one of the few companies who could match furniture to a room. We still do it. That way customers can create the impression the piano was always there! These days the fashion is for lighter based timber, such as beech and cherrywood. Black has always been, and is, a classic colour for upright pianos. As most of our competitors don't want to recondition we get calls from all around Ireland about the merits of particular and family pianos.

"We'd be very anxious too to protect the skills involved and make sure they're carried on. "

They've started to sell Japanese models and another range of new pianos and in 2003 they introduced a limited range too of Digital Pianos. "This allows us cater for people with limited space in apartments. We're not the biggest shop in the country but that's fine by us. The level of service we give people is the most important thing. My father always said, 'Do what you say you'll do' and left us that as a guide in business.

"The future, as long as Adrian and myself remain hale and hearty, is looking good. We feel it is very important to provide reconditioning and services; buying a new piano doesn't lessen the need to follow up with a service."

A knowledge of timbers, of atmospherics, and more, are part of the trade. "Tradition, without being misty-eyed about it, is very important," Jeff says. "We will keep it going. A piano stays in someone's home for 20-30 years."

He has one son, Adrian has two. All three help out in the summer months but no one's pushing them to join the business. Just showing them what it's about, gently. "We're 37 years in business now," Jeff says, "and we're dealing with a third generation of customers."