About  Underdog

A piano is more like a family member than a piece of furniture.  With that in mind, Underdog Pianos will take care of your piano like family, whether it's your infant niece, your athletic teenage cousin, or your rickety great, great grandfather.  Regardless of brand, style or age, almost any piano can be improved in some way, and I strive to do that.  If the piano is important to you, it's important to me.

Underdog services pianos within a 45-minute radius of Westbrook, Maine.

About Tessa

Tessa Cutler-Wood is a Registered Piano Technician and the owner of Underdog Pianos.  She grew up all over the Northeast, but she spent most of her formative years in central Maine.  Her childhood piano was a Baldwin Acrosonic spinet, so spinets will always have a special place in her heart. 

Tessa received a BA in Music from Tulane University in 2015.  She was first exposed to piano work while watching her parents' technician tune their piano. During her senior year of college, she shadowed a technician in New Orleans, watching him tune in bars and historic sites like Preservation Hall, where he let Tessa turn her first tuning pin.  After graduating, Tessa moved to Boston and apprenticed with a technician who showed her the basics of piano repair and regulation.  Then, in 2016, she began attending the North Bennet Street School for Piano Technology.

Of course Tessa loves playing the piano. She also has fun with the ukulele. For non-musical outlets, she takes part in Krav Maga, rock climbing, and the occasional running event.  But her greatest joy is her doggie friend, Oscar, the inspiration for her logo design and business name.

Services Offered

Tuning

Wherever it sits – concert hall or living room – we will make the piano sound its best.

Pitch Correction

If your piano hasn't been tuned for a while, if the weather changed recently, or even if it has been moved to a different place - it may need some bigger changes to its tuning.

Regulation

Regulation ensures that all of the mechanical parts of your instrument are functioning well, an essential part of maintaining a healthy piano.

Repairs

The piano is a living instrument. It is normal for parts to warp or break.  Underdog can take care of that for you too.

Restoration

Sometimes, your piano needs some extra work to make it the best little piano it could ever be. Time packs a punch to these instruments! Underdog can help get your piano back up to where it was performing in its younger years with this service.

Evaluations

There are lots of pianos out there, and Underdog will make sure you get the right instrument for you. You wouldn’t buy a car without your mechanic looking at it first, would you?

Climate Control Installation

When it comes to temperature and humidity, what pianos crave more than anything is consistency. So, the fickle New England weather can be really tough on them! Luckily, there are climate control systems made specifically for pianos (made by Dampp-Chaser).

Who's the Dog?

Oscar is Tessa's beloved first dog.  Before Tessa started at the North Bennet Street School, she was an apprentice at a shop in the Boston area.  Oscar accompanied her to the shop, so he witnessed the beginnings of her career.  He was also a stalwart companion throughout Tessa's education at NBSS.  It was only fitting that he earned a spot in Underdog's brand.  And it doesn't hurt that he's piano colored!

Oscar enjoys chew toys, listening to music, sleeping, and playing with other shop dogs.

Most recently, Oscar was featured on the cover of the January issue of the Piano Technicians Journal.