Depending on need, budget, use, environment, style and quality of your piano, your technician can make specific recommendations. The standard is twice a year, roughly 6 months apart. This will provide good over all tuning, adjusted for seasonal changes for optimum stability. All piano manufacturers such as Steinway and Yamaha recommend tuning 2-4 times a year, especially until the piano is stable and holding pitch. Once a piano is maintaining proper pitch, many customers are happy with the results of tuning once every year or two. For perspective, a concert stage piano is tuned for every performance and a professional recording studio piano is tuned 3-4 times a week. A new piano or one that has not been tuned regularly or for a very long time will benefit greatly from tuning 3-4 times within a year or so. Strings naturally stretch due to the high tension on a piano and climate acclimation. A piano should be tuned to standard A440 (seasonally adjusted) and never allowed to drop in pitch. The wire strings have “memory” that will affect the tuning and tone of your piano, as the bends in the wires around bearing points are pulled to a new position and new bends are forming at proper pitch. Maintaining consistently equal tension and pressures on the soundboard and structure will also help stabilize and preserve your piano and avoid costly repairs. If a piano has drifted in pitch more than a few cents (1 cent is only 1% off, 50 cents is half a note off and so on) one or more pitch raises are needed before the piano can properly be tuned. During a pitch raise, the strings are stretched precisely so they will settle in and help straighten out the old bends, begin to form the new bends, minimize false beats and improve stability. The pitch raise(s) and tuning is done at once so your piano is properly pitched and tuned the day of your appointment.
Why all the Premium Service levels?
Piano Service involves much more than tuning. Regulating, Voicing, Adjustments, Alignments, Cleaning, Lubrication and Repairs as well as Inspection and Evaluation are all important to assuring maximum enjoyment, benefit and preservation of your piano investment. Premium Service makes allowance to assure outstanding care for your piano, whether it’s washing the keytops or spending more time to meticulously set the temperament and testing octave plus intervals for an extraordinary tuning. Each premium service is appropriately designed for expected use of every style of piano. The Standard/Routine tuning is available to everyone but intended for pianos that are already well maintained as this is for tuning only.
Piano Moving We can recommend trusted experienced movers locally or cross country.
*Complete piano service includes periodic regulation and voicing.