Glossary
Musical Instrument Repairer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential musical instrument repairer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key musical instrument repairer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in musical instrument repairer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Action
- Piano key mechanism.
- Apprentice
- Trainee learning a craft.
- Bench
- Craft workstation.
- Commission
- Custom paid work.
- Estimate
- Price quote.
- Fret
- Metal strip on guitar neck.
- Intonation
- Pitch accuracy.
- Leak test
- Finds air leaks.
- Pad
- Seals woodwind keys.
- Pitch raise
- Bringing a piano up to pitch.
- Portfolio
- Samples of work.
- Regulation
- Adjusting a piano action.
- Setup
- Adjusting playability.
- Truss rod
- Adjusts neck bow.
- Voicing
- Adjusting tone.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Musical Instrument Repairer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Musical Instrument Repairer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.