Harpsichord Clearing House

I recently had emailed Harpsichord Clearing House (HCH) for help with identifying and sourcing a few spare parts for my French double manual harpsichord. Much to my surprise, a short time later I received a call from Mr. Glenn Giuttari with HCH. Mr. Giuttari was extremely helpful and also quite knowledgeable. He helped me determine what parts would comprise a good starting point to put a spare parts kit together and then shipped the parts out to me expeditiously. My experience with HCH was great and helped alleviate my frustration with the lack of sources for harpsichord parts here in the US. I’ll definitely be reaching out to HCH in the future with any harpsichord related needs.

I highly recommend the harpsichord clearing house. They are professional and their work is impeccable. I recently purchased an instrument that now lives in Arizona, and I couldn't be happier!

Quality instruments, excellent skilled staff and superior customer service. I understand why they have been in business for 48 years!
Highly recommended.

They have amazing service and their instruments are impeccable. I am a harpsichord builder and I recommend them with reservation.

Have had nothing but a bad experience from the start. We purchased a French double harpsichord from them several years ago, which was promised to be restrung and revoiced within the next three months. That ended up being over eight months, and only because we had to confront them on their incompetency.

Fast-forward to a few years later. I notice a huge crack going along each pin, which has gradually grown since. I later came to realize that someone had replaced the historic pins with modern zither pins (i.e MUCH wider diameter) causing the holes to stress and crack due to pressure. When I called the Harpsichord Clearing House, Mr. Giutarri's only response was "we didn't do that, the previous owner did." Whether they did this themselves or not, they knew this would be a potential problem as any harpsichord specialist would know that this reputable maker had only built with historic pins. When I expressed my frustration of having to get it fixed due to their sleazy work and attention, they only said "it's not that big of a deal" and completely dismissed it. Yes, it IS a big deal when an eyesore of a crack sits horizontally in front of the player and the pitch doesn't hold as it used to due to gradually widening holes. I suspect that not knowing much about harpsichord at the time of the purchase, they imagined that they could get away with it and I'd never notice. I now find myself having to transport this harpsichord across the country (to a different service, of course) to undergo thousands of dollars in repair, all thanks to the lack of transparency and sketchy business practice.

In addition to all of that, its difficult to get any response from their phone or email, their parts are far overpriced compared to other services, they work at a sloth-like pace, and they are all around a complete fraud. I've had a few colleagues that have had very similar experiences with the Harpsichord Clearing House. That should say something. I'll think of updating this if they take responsibility for their actions, but so far, I haven't seen a single budge from HCH's end.

Dishonest, middleman. Nasty, poor costumer service. Avoid avoid avoid......