Re: Piano Tuning

I am a friend of Matt's and a piano tuner. Yes, every piano, regardless of
how much it is played requires
on going, or seasonal tuning as the tuning changes because of fluctuations
in humidity levels. If you have a
humidity control system installed and properly maintained, you can get by
with one tuning per year. However, these
systems are expensive, and you do have to maintain them, which is easy. When
piano wire is not tuned on a regular basis,
it can produce false beats, an out of tune effect, as a result of the wire
getting "set" for lack of a better word, around the
contact points, mainly the bridge pins. New piano wire is very elastic and
needs regular movement via tuning manipulation.
I recently tuned a 30 year old piano, which had its last tuning 14 years
ago.( the customer produced the invoice as proof).
Not only was the pitch a quarter tone flat resulting in the piano requiring
3, yes, 3 tunings to get it back in tune, 2 strings broke
because of kinking around contact points. So, the customer had quite a
shock. She has to pay for 4 calls within a 2 month period.
Besides, a piano which is kept in good tuning is a pleasure to play and
shows pride of ownership. You have an opportunity to build
a good relationship with your tuner, which can be a valuable resource over
the time you play the piano. Besides tuning, your piano
needs action regulation, as with use the action cloths, felts, and leathers
compact resulting in factory set measurements between the
action parts, for example the key dip, hammer to string distance etc.,
increasing. A piano which is out of regulation is much more
difficult to play than one which has the proper adjustments. Just try
playing something quickly on a piano where the keys go down too far!

Kent Stallan
Toronto, Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat McClard" <once.ince@...>
To: <musicalfossils@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 7:35 PM
Subject: [musicalfossils] Piano Tuning


> Hi All,
>
> I've begun piano lessons and chose to start out on an electronic
> keyboard. It is going well so far, but I've recently started looking
> into upgrading to a digital or an acoustic piano. I've gotten some
> conflicting information about acoustic piano maintenance. The
> salesmen, and all information I find on-line, are telling me that an
> acoustic piano has to be tuned once or twice a year. A very good
> friend of mine, with a musical background, is telling me that they're
> crazy, that I could play for five years without having a piano tuned.
> Honestly I don't believe her, but am always reluctant to take
> everything salesmen have to say as gospel also.
>
> How often do you have your pianos tuned?
>
> Mindy
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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