Piano Tuning
Call A Piano Tuner Professional
The piano is one of only a half dozen instruments that are not tuned by the player every time it is used. Violists, Cellists and Guitarists do not have to call a tuner, but pianists, piano owners and piano teachers have to find a tuner / technician to maintain their instruments.
The piano tuner professional understands the main enemy of piano tuning and overall piano health is humidity / temperature changes, others would be surprised to discover the second enemy of piano health, and longevity is lack of service.
Nobody is playing ~ why have it tuned?
Even if no one is playing your piano, the weather is playing it 24 hours everyday and it should be tuned regularly.
With over 20 tons of string pressure, pianos are designed to be maintained at A440 standard pitch and when a piano is allowed to go off-pitch the curvature of the soundboard changes and the whole structure of the piano shifts. As you can imagine, this bending and shifting is not productive for the health of your piano.
Preventive maintenance is another reason a piano should be tuned, even if the customer doesn’t care how badly and inharmonic the piano sounds when out of tune. Like so many things in life, piano problems often develop over time. The watchful eye of the piano tuner can help to avoid thousands of dollars in repair and potentially avoid losing all value.
We all know people who have “rolled the dice” with their pianos by not having them tuned for years. To take such a gamble with instruments that cost thousands of dollars just to avoid the price of a couple tunings each year seems counterproductive. And certainly only use a piano tuner who is a skilled professional.
From Steinway & Sons:
Tuning is an art practiced by skilled professionals and under no circumstances should anyone other than a professional be allowed to try to tune your Steinway piano.
Scheduling Your Piano Tuner
How often should you schedule appointments with your piano tuner?
Let’s ask the people who make pianos.
Read what piano manufactures say
Basic Piano Care ~ Where Do I Begin?
From the Piano Technicians Guild:
A Lifetime Of Enjoyment
A piano brings a lifetime of enjoyment to you and your family. As you might expect with any investment of this size, a piano requires periodic servicing to provide outstanding performance year after year. But to understand what maintenance is required, it’s important to understand the nature of the piano.
The beautiful, natural sound of a piano is due to the remarkable blending of such materials as wood, metal, buckskin, and wool. Together they create a uniquely timeless sound that no other instrument in the world can duplicate. While electronic synthesizers may approximate the sound of an acoustic piano, they cannot approach the true beauty of the real thing.
Pianos are peculiar in the sense the more often they are tuned, the longer they stay in tune. And conversely, the less often they’re tuned, the faster they go out of tune. Thus a piano that’s not been tuned for many years will usually not hold the first tuning as long as a piano that has been tuned on a regular basis.
Schedule Your Piano Tuner Regularly
Keep your piano in tune so you can enjoy the full potential of your piano. ( Piano Manufacturers Recomendations ) It was specifically designed to be tuned to the international pitch standard of A-440 cycles per second. Your piano will sound its best and give you and your family the most pleasure when it is tuned regularly and kept in proper playing condition.
Protect Your Piano From Dust
Keep your piano clean. Keep the keyboard covered when not in use to prevent dust from accumulating. Clean keys by occasionally wiping them with a damp cloth and drying them immediately. If accumulated debris cannot be removed with a damp cloth, try wiping the cloth on a bar of mild soap or moisten with dishwasher detergent before wiping. Do not use chemicals or solvents to clean piano keys. Call a qualified piano technician to remove anything from the keys you cannot wipe away.
Piano Tuning Fee
My Price for basic tuning
A basic tuning fee ranges from $105 ~ $140 and although a basic tuning usually only takes 45 to 90 minutes, I recommend reserving two hours for complete service. Please read the following for more insight.
Piano Tuner Price Shopping
Quality is the best economy ~ Similar to other businesses, piano tuners receive phone calls from potential customers shopping for the cheapest price. I wonder if they realize the huge differences among piano tuners. While everyone enjoys a good bargain, the care of your piano should only be trusted to a skilled professional and the piano tuning fee should not be the determining factor in choosing your piano tuner.
For many, there are only three issues that shape customer’s opinion and judgment about a tuner’s service.
- The opinion of the person who recommended the technician.
- The personality of the technician.
- The price ~ fee ~ cost of service.
In regards to price, if a piano tuner / technician’s price is low, many reasons to themselves; “If he is so good why are his prices lower than my last tuner? … or lower than Aunt Susie’s tuner?”
Piano Tuning ~ There Is A Difference
The bargain-basement tuner, believing customers have a hard time distinguishing one level of piano service from another, adopts an attitude of, “Why should I spend time, money and effort improving my piano tuning and servicing skills when customers can’t tell the difference anyway?” More often than not, he underestimates his customers, and is therefore always looking for business.
Not only is that attitude unethical, but the bargain-basement tuner seems totally unaware of the “WOW” factor. When an exceptional high quality technician services a piano after following a bargain tuner and the customer sits down to play, many times the pianist responds with; “WOW, what a difference!” When given the chance to compare high quality piano tuning with low quality piano tuning the pianist can, and does tell the difference.
Customers pay thousands of dollars for their instruments and to gamble on the care of such an instrument just to avoid a small difference in tuning cost seems an unwarranted gamble.
Greater Kansas City Service Area
Servicing in Kansas City, MO ( KC MO ), in Kansas City, KS ( KC KS ) and surrounding areas including:
| Belton,MO | Kansas City,MO | Lone Jack,MO | Prairie Village,KS |
| Blue Springs,MO | Kearney,MO | Macon,MO | Raymore,MO |
| Bonner Springs,KS | Lake Lotawana,MO | Merriam,KS | Raytown,MO |
| Fairway,KS | Lansing,MO | Mission Hills,KS | Shawnee,KS |
| Gardner,KS | Lawrence,KS | Mission,KS | Smithville,MO |
| Gladstone,MO | Leavenworth,KS | Olathe,KS | Spring Hill,KS |
| Grandview,MO | Leawood,KS | Overland Park,KS | Stilwell,KS |
| Greenwood,MO | Lee’s Summit,MO | Parkville,MO | Westwood,KS |
| Independence,MO | Lenexa,KS | Platte City,MO | |
| Kansas City,KS | Liberty,MO | Pleasant Hill,MO |
If your area is not listed above, it is possible I still might be able to schedule a piano tuning appointment in your area. Give me a call so we can make arrangements.
Questions and Answers
Please feel free to ask whatever you like below. For private questions use the “Contact” form on the top navigation bar, otherwise use the comment area below to enter your piano question.
Thank You!
(Please note, this is not for piano technicians or people wanting to learn the piano tuning business but rather a place for customers and / or potential customers to ask questions about piano care or service related issues.)
How often should a piano be tuned?
The following is offered as a piano tuning guide. After all, who would know better, when you should tune your piano than the people who make pianos?
Piano Manufacturers Recommend…
Steinway & Sons
Humidity Affects Piano Tuning
… Unfortunately, no matter how expertly a piano is tuned, atmospheric variations, particularly humidity, and the nature of the piano’s construction constantly conspire to bring it off pitch.
Steinway Recommendations For Piano Tuning
Your Steinway piano has been designed and built so that in normal use and under normal conditions it should need only periodic tuning. We recommend that your tuner be called at least 3 or 4 times a year. You, however, are the final judge and should have the piano tuned as often as you think necessary. To put the matter of tuning into perspective, remember that a concert piano is tuned before every performance and a piano in a professional recording studio, where it is in constant use, is tuned 3 or 4 times each week as a matter of course.
Baldwin
New Pianos Need More Frequent Tuning
In the first year, … have your piano tuned four times. This is a period of environmental adjustment for a new instrument and proper attention is important.
After the first year, the piano should be tuned at least twice each year depending upon the frequency of use and atmospheric conditions. … arrange for a reputable technician to service your piano regularly.
Yamaha Piano
The Importance Of Regular Piano Tuning
Why schedule regular service? … Regular service will keep your piano’s performance (and your enjoyment) at its peak level. It will also correct “progressive” problems early, before they turn into costly repairs. For these reasons Yamaha strongly recommends that you adopt a schedule of regular service for your piano.
Your Piano Tuner Should Be Scheduled At Least Twice A Year
… The strings need to be tuned a minimum of twice a year to restore them to their proper tension.
Boesendorfer Piano
Bosendorder Recommends Calling Your Piano Tuner 2 or 3 Times A Year
Climatic factors such as temperature or humidity changes may cause the precise tuning of your piano to vary. Also naturally over time the tuning will alter due to the tensions the strings are constantly under.
If your piano receives normal use, we advise you to have your instrument tuned 2 or 3 times a year. Instruments which are being used more frequently, such as concert halls and recording studios, are being tuned before each concert or recording session.
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Piano Tuning |
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Piano Brands / Manufacturers |