Facts of Tuning  |  Criteria of a Piano Tuner |  Piano Protection  |  FAQ  |  Contact me 

Facts of Tuning

A piano is a costly investment and should be kept in tune. The strings of every piano are under tons of pressure by tension, a piano can go off tune through a period of time even if no one plays it.

The objective of tuning a piano is to produce an equal temperament scaling with a certain pitch (A49 of 440 cycle per second).

Factors affecting the string tension are:

  • Climatic changes such as humidity and temperature around.
  • Strings of a new piano is still elastic and the tuning may not stay longer than the season one.
  • Slipping pins can cause a piano to go flat especially for old piano.
  • The louder and more often you play a piano, the faster it goes out of tune as the force of the hammer repeatedly hitting the string can loosen the tension, thus the overall tuning.
  • The movement of a piano from a location to another can affect its tuning, especially through transportations and lifting up and down.

The importance of tuning is to maintain all string tension at concert pitch as long as possible and thus depends upon the skills and experience of the piano tuner. Every pianos must be tuned at least once a year otherwise the steel string may go dead.

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Criteria of a Piano Tuner

It is an advisable not to have a tuner based on the lowest service charge. The accuracy and stability of the tuning depend much on the skills and responsibility of the tuner. Low service charge means that tuner has to tune more pianos to sustain his livelihood, thus the rush work may affect the quality of service and may not safeguard the client's piano and it's surrounding furniture.

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Piano Protection

Too many turnings of pins during the process of tuning to catch the desirable tone will loosen or damage the turning pins, thus this would damage the piano permanently. Use a tuner who is accurate and has knowledge of piano technology who can repair the piano as well.

WARNING!

"DON'T EVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR PIANO!"











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Frequent Asked Questions

  1. My piano is two years old without tuning, however, it still plays in right tunes. Does it still require tuning? Why?

    2. Yes. You may not hear your piano out of tunes as all strings lose their tension altogether as time passes. You may hear the tune out when certain strings are played excessively as  may their tension lose faster than others. It is the general tension of strings that give the pitch. This pitch may drop to an extent that it poses a higher possibility to break strings to tune back to the concert pitch.

  2. Do I have to wait till it is out of tune to tune the piano?

    3. By the time when the tune is out, your piano may have other problems due to lack of maintenance, as there are many moving parts in the piano mechanism. All pianos must be checked and tuned at least once a year.

  3. When I play to test my piano in the showroom, it sounds good. However, the piano does not sound as good as it is when played at home. Is it due to tuning out?

    4. It is possible that the piano tuning is affected during transportation to your home. If the tone remains the same after tuning, the tone of piano may be affected by the location it is placed at. Your room acoustics may not be as good as it is in the showroom. Room acoustics is good when there is less rebound of sound waves especially in the showroom where it is designed for sound absorption by padded walls and carpeting.

  4. How long it takes to tune a piano?

    5. Generally, it takes an hour to tune a piano. It may require up to 1½ hour to tune a piano when the pitch falls too low.

  5. Why do some tuners tune pianos by hearing while others use the tuning scope to tune?

    6. Both ways of tuning are acceptable. Tuning by aural hearing depends on highly trained listening to set basic tune right, otherwise the whole scale will be out of tune after tuning. Tuning using electronic tuner depends on the knowledge of the user and accuracy of the instrument. It is advantageous to base on both ways to tune.

  6. Do you perform other checks besides tuning?

    7. Yes. Minor problems such as key stuck, inspection of heater and insect infestations are performed together with tuning.

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Contact me

Contact Mr Sng K.E. at:

  • Telephone No.: 90413153/ 67907803

  • Email Address: weiyingsun@hotmail.com

if you have to or never tune your piano before serious damages can occur in your piano.

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Fees

Upright Piano

Professional fees of tuning are range from $50 to $70 depending on your state of piano.

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About Me

 Name:

Mr. Sng K.E.

 Tel:

90413153/ 67907803

 Mail:

weiyingsun@hotmail.com

Links

 Piano teachers:

http://mypianoteacher.multiply.com