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Your Guide to Piano Care Your piano deserves care and maintenance, just as you would maintain the family car. If you can afford to buy a quality piano, you can afford to maintain it. Tuning Tuning is a very basic element in piano care, yet it is very much misunderstood. What is tuning? Why does my piano go out of tune? How often should I have my piano tuned? A piano has many wires or strings, even more than two hundred. They are stretched at a high level of tension across a cast-iron plate. The pitch or frequency of each string depends upon the amount of tension applied to that string. A piano tuner uses a tool called a "tuning hammer" that fits the tuning pin like a socket wrench. By turning the tuning pin the tension is increased or decreased on that string, resulting in a different frequency or pitch being heard. By adjusting the pitch of each string so they are in harmony with each other produces a pleasing sound. It should be noted here that tuning only involves the adjustment of the string tension to change the harmonicity of the piano. Many other maintenance operations can be performed by us and may include repairs, adjustments, eliminating squeaks and rattles, cleaning, etc. Why Does My Piano Go Out of Tune Humidity, temperature, sudden environmental changes, all these and many more can cause changes in the tuning stability of your piano. The soundboard in the piano, whether vertical (upright) or grand, tends to be very sensitive to changes in humidity. The soundboard is glued around its perimeter to the frame of the piano. The soundboard has a "crowned" center similar to the crown of a violin top. When the humidity increases, the soundboard absorbs moisture and the crown will rise. The bridges are mounted to the surface of the soundboard. When the soundboard rises, the tension on the strings will increase, causing the piano to sharpen or increase pitch. As the surrounding humidity is lessened, the soundboard will release moisture to the atmosphere, decreasing the crown and lessening the string tension. As you probably guessed, the piano went flat. Unfortunately, all strings do not react in exactly the same way. With the random increase or decrease in string tension, the piano really begins to sound badly. To make matters worse, these changes tend to be more evident in the lower treble and tenor sections because this is the area most affected by the rise and fall of the soundboard crown. The low bass and the high tenor are affected by this movement, but not nearly as drastically. How Often Should My Piano be Tuned Some concert pianists will require two or three tunings very close to concert time and another tuning at intermission. A piano in a music school could require tunings on a quarterly basis. The very active home pianist will likely have his/her piano tuned every 6 months. Even the un-played piano should be tuned once per year for the good of the piano. If a piano is neglected for two or three years, it may take two tunings to bring it to stability at standard pitch (A440). Regulation In order for you piano to function properly it must be regulated or adjusted properly. A new piano was regulated at the factory. After a period of about six months of use, the felts have become somewhat compacted and the piano should be regulated once again. From this period, a home piano that is played for about an hour per day will need regulation only about once every five to ten years. Voicing Voicing is the adjustment or regulation of the tone of the piano. These changes are achieved by softening or hardening the hammers. Hard hammer felt will make the piano sound brighter, softer hammer felt will make the piano sound softer. After long periods of playing, grooves will develop in the hammer faces. This can be eliminated by re-shaping the hammer face and regulating its stricking surface to the strings. Re-shaping can be done numerous times if done properly before the hammers would need replacement. Relative Humidity and Your Piano There is lots of wood in your piano, from the frame of the piano, the pinblock, the keybed, even the action parts (most pianos) are largely wooden. All of these parts are subject to physical changes resulting from changing humidity, just as the soundboard. Each area will be affected in different ways. High moisture content followed by very low moisture content in the pinblock will cause the tuning pins to loosen and not hold tune. The action, being exposed to high humidity will become sluggish and sticky. When dried out, will rattle and clank. It is therefore, very important to keep your piano at a constant relative humidity. Some manufacturers suggest that the ideal humidity level is 40% to 50%. We humans tend to fair better at a relative humidity of 50% to 60%. There are devices available to install in your piano that will hold the humidity to a set level. This is achieved by monitoring the humidity with a humidistat. If the atmosphere is too dry, the device will heat a moistened wick and evaporate moisture into the piano's interior. If it is too damp, a heating bar or bars will come on and dry the piano to a pre-set level. Pretty simple huh? Problem is, you probably don't know too many people with environmental control systems in their pianos. In earlier times when home construction was not up to our modern building methods, people would avoid placing a piano near an outside wall. In today's modern homes, it really is not much of a factor. With our homes controlled year-round with heat pumps, especially in the mid-south, they are switched from heat to cool and vice-versa, not allowing for a vast change in humidity. If you have a modern home with well-insulated walls and a heat pump, don't worry too much about the humidity. If not, you may want to consider a method to control the humidity levels in your piano. Cleaning and Polishing the Case Some manufacturers suggest the use of a damp cheesecloth or other lintless cloth. Simply wipe with the grain of the wood, following with a dry cloth. If you do use furniture polish or wax, please avoid the use of products containing silicone. We can suggest products that work well with your piano's finish. Cleaning the Keys Clean the keys the same way that you cleaned the case, however be very careful not to let water run down between the keys. If the naturals (white keys) are genuine ivory, do not let water stand on them as they will absorb the water, curl up and fall off. When you clean the sharps (black keys) you will need to use a separate cloth becasue some of the stain or dye will come off on the cleaning cloth. If your piano has plastic sharps, don't worry the black won't come off. Cleaning the Inside of Your Piano Now this is where you can cause some problems. When we arrive to tune and service your piano, this is a good time to take your vacuum and clean the inside bottom of your upright piano. When the front boards and fallboard are removed, a quick vacuum here will help. Be very careful not to harm the action if you choose to vacuum here. If your piano is a grand, we have special tools that allow us to clean the soundboard, plate and rim. Mothproofing Moths love your piano maybe even more than you do. They will eat the wool felt in the hammers, dampers and other areas in the action as well as the felts in the keybed. Most piano manufacturers use felts that have been treated with a mothproofing agent. If you have a problem or fear one, let us know and we can use some mothproofing agents during our service call. |
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