A junk piano may not play a note, but it is still music to the ears of John Trinckes.

"I see good quality wood and potential," said Trinckes, a retired West Port High School choir director and developer of the school's guitar program, about making unique musical instruments from wood and internal parts of pianos that people give or throw away.

"Many people don't realize a piano needs tuned about every nine months and if one sits it may not be able to be tuned due to the effects of humidity. Some people who bring them when moving eventually decide to discard them," Trinckes said.

Over the last 20 years, Trinckes has used his woodworking skills, musical knowledge and a lot of imagination to hand fabricate string basses, percussion instruments and upwards of 200 folk harps, which stand from about four to five feet tall, using soundboards from discarded pianos.

A folk harp made by Trinckes was awarded first place at a Dania Beach woodworking event about two years ago.

One of his designs is a replica of a circa 1690s string bass without "cutouts" on the sides that allow clearance for a bow because bows were not used in that time period. The string bass took several months to make and is "100 percent" made from a recycled piano.

Trinckes uses nylon fishing line for the strings on his instruments and many of them can be fitted with electronic sound pickups for amplification.

He can play all the instruments he makes, as well as piano and guitar.

Trinckes has fashioned a combination percussion instrument called a cajon drum from recycled material. The wooden instrument has a snare drum section and a hollow box section for deeper sounds.

Sam Seufert, of Sam's Quality Guitar Repair in Ocala, has known Trinckes for about six years.

"John's instruments are pretty cool and pretty unique. The harps really stand out," Seufert said.

Trinckes, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, graduated with bachelor and master degrees in music from Youngstown State University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974.

"I played tuba in the 8th Army Band and was stationed in Korea for a time. We sometimes played so close to the DMZ that troops on the North Korea side could hear and they applauded," he said.

He played in folk and rock groups in the 1970s and enjoyed playing with a polka band.

By 1983, Trinckes had moved to Fort Lauderdale and served as a band director at South Plantation and Boyd Anderson high schools.

While living in South Florida his late wife asked about a harp and Trinckes decided to make one in the early 1990s, calling on woodworking skills he first used in a part-time construction job as a teen.

Trinckes was later commissioned by people who knew he made the harps to restore two antique concert style pedal harps, a 1793 and a 1823, made by Sebastian Errard, valued at $25,000 and $30,000 each.

"They were basket cases," Trinckes said.

His intricate restoration of the ornate harps drew praise from harp experts. The history of the harps was traced back and a British "sales ledger" for the 1823 harp was found that ties it to the Royal College of Music.

The 1793 harp was purchased by a private collector and the other was placed in a collection in Fort Lauderdale.

Another project Trinckes tackled while living in Fort Lauderdale was building a 21-foot diesel inboard powered wooden tug boat he christened "Victorian Lady."

Trinckes moved to Marion County in 2006 and taught at West Port High School until he retired in 2011. One of his guitar students, Timothy Sties, now makes custom acoustic guitars and Trinckes has one of the six-string models that has a special offset neck.

Trinckes met Linda Ellen Brown, a widow, about three years ago, and the two soon were married. Brown-Trinckes makes a cast of character stuffed bears called Beariety as well as dolls and Santas. Her bear and doll creations been featured in Teddy Bear and Friends and Dolls Magazine.

Brown-Trinckes, an alto song stylist, has recorded a number of songs with John on piano and the two have recently completed a "romantic, easy listening" CD titled "Those Three Little Words."

John Trinckes said the CD was handled through an internet based recording service called CD Baby for independent artists, which also collects royalties.

Learn more about the music, the bears, the instruments and the couple by visiting www.trinckesmusic.com.