Piano tuning

A piano goes out of tune even if its not being used.

Generally a piano will drop in pitch 2 to 3 cents a year. A piano can sound perfectly in tune but in fact the whole scale will be flat. The further a technician needs to bring it back up to pitch, the less stable the tuning will be. Multiple piano tunings may need to take place.

I have customers that get their piano or pianos tuned twice a year. I tune the Alexander piano 12 times a year depending on gigs or concerts. 

Once a year for a domestic piano is generally good.

Piano tuning is a crucial part of an instruments care. If a piano is out of tune a student can become used to it, and train their ears to be used to the wrong pitch and sound, which can lead to a shock when playing an instrument that is in tune. It is impossible to play a fixed pitch instrument with an out of tune piano.

Occasionally I come across a piano that is down in pitch requiring two or even three tunings before it is stable.

Another kind of maintenance a piano technician will do is regulation and voicing, lesser known to the owner of a piano but this can turn a very average piano into a much more responsive and better sounding one. 

On one key of an upright piano there can be up to 25 adjustments that can be made, and on a grand piano up to 35!

Very often I come across a piano that can not be tuned because of slipping tuning pins, excessive rusty strings split sound board bridge, or some other problem. More and more people are buying pianos like this, spending alot of money moving them only to find that nothing can be done.

Booking

I offer Piano tuning and repairs in Dunedin, Timaru and I travel to Christchurch,

If you would like to know more about piano tuning or make a booking feel free to contact me Click Here.