Category — Tuning & Caring For A Piano

 So, as mentioned in our last post, the significant cost and undertaking of rebuilding a piano  requires deep consideration of whether or not it’s truly warranted in your piano’s case. Here are some of the instances where rebuilding makes sense:
1. You are rebuilding a fine grand (or really incredible upright) whose worth will well exceed the cost of the restoration once the work is completed.
An example would be rebuilding a Steinway grand that is only worth about $10K in it’s present run-down condition, but which will be worth over $40K after being completely refurbished. Obviously, the cost is worth it, and if it’s properly rebuilt, it could result in a piano that sounds as good, or better, than a comparable new model of the same make. I have performed many of these full restorations on fine older pianos of every top brand name imaginable (and a few lesser-quality brands, which leads us to instance #2.)

2. You are rebuilding a piano, grand or upright, that will NOT be worth a lot of money after rebuilding, perhaps even a bit less than what it costs to rebuild it, but the piano has sentimental value for you – a family heirloom perhaps – and you have no intention of replacing it with another piano, so you must restore your treasured instrument as best you can.

3. You have a “special” instrument – a rare antique or highly ornate piece of furniture – with worn-out parts and sound, which, due to its age and old design, won’t sound that great even AFTER it’s rebuilt. But you have the wherewithal, and want to restore it as a special piece of furniture or conversation piece, for your mansion:) That may seem frivolous, but you’d be surprised how many rich customers have hired me to do just that. Restore some weird, off-brand antique piano, one that, even after restoral, will produce thin, poor tone quality when compared to any modern grand. This is especially true of the dreaded “square grand,” a long, rectangular box of a grand with strings running side-to-side instead of front-to-back, sitting on four legs instead of three. It looks a bit like a coffin, and sounds just as dead, due to the tiny soundboard and bridges and an amazingly poor action design. Major piano makers, even Steinway, produced these from about 1840 to 1900, and blessedly stopped after that. I rebuilt two of these, and that cured me of it…never again!

So there are definitely times and reasons for investing in full restoration of your piano. But here’s a caveat and an admission you may not expect from someone who can make tens of thousands of dollars every year, restoring pianos:

Rebuilt pianos, even ones restored by master rebuilders, rarely sound and play as great as they did originally, and almost never as good as a new one.

I’ve been a tuner-rebuilder for over 35 years. I’ve played many, many older Steinways, Baldwins, Bosedorfers, Bechsteins and Bluthners, restored by the finest rebuilders in the country, including pre-1940s Steinways rebuilt by Steinway themselves, at their factory. Truth be told, even though they all sound and play ten times better than when they still had their old parts, and get “close” to how they sounded new, they fall short of the level of touch & tone excellence available in a well-built, well-prepped new instrument. I’ve simply never played a finely rebuilt Steinway or Bosendorfer, then gone to the dealer and played well-regulated-and-voiced new Steinway or Bosendorfer, and felt the rebuilts were nearly as resonant and wonderful. That’s just the way it is with new parts in an older piano. Even if you replace everything but the plate and cabinet, it’s still older, and something is still missing, still falls short, when compared to the new ones. So I will contnue to rebuild fine pianos for all customers citing any of the reasons above, but these days, I tend to recommend, “Get a new one” a lot more often than, “You should rebuild the one you have.”

Or Purchase A Rebuilt/Refurbished Piano?

Should You Rebuild Your Piano, or Purchase A Refurbished Piano?

When families, piano students and players need a good-sounding, well functioning piano for their home or studio, they actually have 4 choices:

1. Buy a new piano with full warranty
2. Buy a used piano in its present condition
3. Buy an older used piano that’s already been completely rebuilt
4. Buy an older used piano in poor or run-down condition and pay to have it rebuilt yourself.
And of course, if you already own a piano that is older, and most of the parts are wearing out, causing poor sound & touch, you can add a fifth possibility to our list of choices
5. Rebuild your existing piano

Obviously, the first two choice are the easiest to undertake. Choice 3 can also be easy enough as long as you can verify the competence and quality of the rebuilder and his work.
Here, as in our earlier post about buying a used piano, one caveat cannot be overstressed: Take an expert technician with you who has the experience to accurately gauge to rebuilders skill level and qulaity of their work.

But choices 4 and 5 are tricky, and require deep assessment to determine whether or not any given piano warrants rebuilding.

First, let’s clarify what is meant by rebuilding a piano. Rebuilding a used piano, also reffered to as piano restoration or refurbishing, is the process of gutting the instrument of all it’s worn out parts, and replacing them with fresh new parts.

There are different levels of rebuilding. In some cases, simply replacing the hammers, dampers, key & action felts, and all the strings, is enough. In the restoration of much older instruments, it may also be necessary to replace many wooden action parts like the hammershanks, wippens, springs, damper levers, and even the wooden keys or keyframe, as well as cutting, fitting and drilling a new tuning pin block.

So rebuilding often may start with gutting the piano all the way down to the bare cabinet, iron plate, soundboard and bridges. As mentioned in the earlier post, full soundboard/bridge replacement is rare for most “piano shop rebuilders,” usually a factory job.

Rebuilding usually takes place in the piano technicains shop, for considerations of space, noise, messiness, and the tech’s access to all his heavy and technical tools. But, if it’s strictly an easier-level rebuilding job (just restringing and action-parts replacement) with no refinishing of the cabinet included, some rebuilders will offer to bring their tools and parts to the home and carry out the work there, saving the owner back-and-forth cartage fees.

Obviously, this is a LOT of work, usually consuming 4-8 weeks and costing from $3,000 to $10,000, depending on the type of instrument (old upright or fine grand) and depth of restoral needed. And that’s just for the inner restoral; we haven’t added the thousands for professional refinishing of the case.

With those kind of figures, it’s obvious that full piano rebuilding only make senses in a few instances. In our next post, let’s take a look at when rebuilding is warranted.
 

Beyond regular tuning, there are several other adjustments that should be performed regularly or semi-regularly on any fine piano. Here’s a brief list, ask your tuner for more detailed information about the care of your specific instrument:

Action Regulation:
A good grand piano has approximately 9,000 parts, most of them moving parts!

When you strike any piano key, you send between 15-20 parts into motion, just to make sure the hammer strikes the string properly, falls away properly, and the key goes down smoothly and to the right depth under your finger. All these parts are adjusted to exact measurements and specifications to insure that every note strikes correctly, and that the touch of every key feels precisely like every other key up and down the piano.

After many hours of play and practice, these settings start to go out of adjustment, little by little. Depending on how much you play, after several years, the settings will need to be rest across the whole piano action. This process is called “action regulation.” It is a precise skill, to be performed only by a well-experienced techinician. He will need several hours to do the work, and will charge approx. $250-$350

Voicing or Tone Regulating:
The srings are struck by egg shaped felts called the hammers. The tonal color and beauty of any piano is extremely dependent on the condition of these felts. If they are too hard, either from being “packed down” after years of hard use, or from old age and drying out, they will produce a very strident, unpleasant sound. If too soft, the piano will sound dull and lifeless.  A fine techinician can immediately detect the condition of any piano hammers and their effect on the tone. At some point, so much of the original hammer felt may be worn away that the only remedy is replace them all with a fresh set of quality hammers.

But if there’s still plenty of original felt left, and the hammers have just gotten hard or deeply grooved, a skilled piano technician trained in proper tone regulating will know how to “voice” the hammers back to a beautiful tone. Often this requires shaving off some of the old top layer of felt (a very precise process, as hammer’s striking point must stay properly shaped to strike all the strings at an exact point) and using a needle to soften or release tension on specific areas of each hammer. How often your piano’s hammers need this will be determined by how often and hard you play, and the quality level of the original hammer set. Professionals who practice many hours every day will need some hammer voicing every month or two. “Average” home players, practicing 45-60min. a day may find they can go several years in between hammer vocings. Voicing is not a job for newbies; if your piano needs voicing, get the best tech you can find, period.

Some parts that may need replacing:

Aside from the aforementioned hammers, which may need replacing in anywhere from 10-35 years depending on playing frequency, another felt component that commonly needs replacing are the key bushings. Each key has two holes that straddle two guide pins as they go up and down. The pins are metal and the key is wood, so there wood be constant knocking if not for 4 little pieces of felt separating and cushioning the metal pins from the wood. These are called the key bushings. The constant up & down motion of each key rubs against the metal pins, eventually wearing away the felt, causing the keys to fell very loose and noisy. When this occurs (somewhere between 5-25 years, depending on quality of the piano and playing frequency) a good technician will rebush your keys for about $250.

As a highly-respected piano tuner-technician, this is a subject near & dear to my heart. Yet, it is also one of my shorter posts, because choosing a tuner is so straightforward.

First, never, ever, choose a tuner on price alone. In every technical field, you get what you pay for, and that’s especially true of piano technicians. And it’s just not that much more expensive to choose a reputable expert over a cut-price hack. Maybe you’ll spend an extra $20-30. Is your instrument worht it?

Second, don’t skimp on frequency, don’t choose to wait a couple years in between tunings. I’m assuming you are one of those piano owners who really cares about your instrument, no matter how fine or humble, or you wouldn’t have read this far. Whether your piano cost $1000 or $100,000, spending a couple hundred bucks every year to keep it maintained should feel like a very modest, no-brainer investment to keep it functioning properly. Obviously, if your family is going through a period where no one plays the piano anymore, you’ll be tempted to let it slide. But it will go out of tune and adjustment on its own, just sitting there, and when piano-playing interest is renewed, you’ll find yourself spending much, much more to tweak it back into shape. It’s less expensive just to keep it up each year.

With those first two points in mind, choosing the right tuner-tehchnician is simple. Just find the best, most highly-recommended and reputed tuner in your area, have him come to your piano, trust him when he describes its current condition and what it needs, and pay him whatever he asks. That’s it!
If he’s that highly reputed, he’s not going to gouge you or take advantage of your lack of techincal piano knowledge by recommending work your piano doesn’t need. Believe me, it takes a long time to build up that kind of fine reputation, he cherishes it, and he’s not going to risk losing all that just to make a few extra bucks off you. Plus, if he’s that good, most likely he has plenty of work and doesn’t need to gouge any of his customers.

There are two ways to discover the best tuner in your area. One way is to use a tuner who is a member of the Piano Technicians Guild, a non-profit organization that puts each applicant through stringent testing to determine their level of skill. So if the tuner has a Piano Technicians Guild card, or the PTG insignia on their business card, you can usually rest assured they are a competent tuner-technician. Usually, but not always.

An even better way is to simply ask the fine pianists and piano owners in your area, who they use. Don’t be shy, call the top piano teachers, local concert artists, or anyone you know who owns an expensive Steinway or Bosendorfer, and find out who they use. Better still, if you live in a city that has major recording studios, where important music is recorded, ask them. Recording studios are perhaps the most finnicky about perfectly tuned pianos, because their pianos are often played by major artists, and the notes played are going to be presevered for posterity and heard by many thousands or millions, so it has to be perfect.

In my early years as a tuner, I got called into a major recording session (for the brass-rock group Chicago) simply because their normal tuner was out with the flu, and I was the first tuner who answered the phone as they went down the list in the Yellow Pages. I tried to do my best tuning, got payed, and went home thinking, “Well that was a lucky fluke.” Three months later, I got a call from Elton John’s road manager saying, “We need Elton’s piano tuned for 2 concerts at the Cow Palace, and we hear you’re the best tuner in Chicago.” Wow! Someone from the band Chicago had recommended me, and that was the start of a career tuning for many fine artists, concert halls and recoirding studios. Tuners: always do your best wok, and piano owners: simply find and hire the best available!

As mentioned previously, you should have an expert tuner-technician come out at least twice a year to take care of the inside of your piano – tuning, regulating, voicing and replacing of any worn out parts.

But taking care of the outside of your piano is your job, and it’s relatively simple.

Most pianos need only dry dusting, no polishes, to keep the furniture looking just fine. Occasionally, there will be oily fingerprints and other dirt tat won’t come off with dry dusting. In that case, just take two gentle-fabric wiping cloths (the best is those micro-fibre cloths), dip one in a little water with a few drops of gentle soap, and wring it out almost dry. Use the damp soapy one to rub off the offending spots, then immediately wipe away the dampness with the dry cloth and you’re done.

Pianos have two types of outer finishes. The original finish-of-choice was lacquer, and most good pianos were sprayed at the factory with several coats of high-quality lacquer, which was then hand-rubbed to the desired sheen. This is still the common choice in American pianos.

In the last few decades, Japanese and European piano manufacturers switched over to a much harder finish called polyester. You can spot these finishes on Japanese and European pianos right away, as they are ultra-glossy, wet-look finishes. They are difintely shinier and more durable then lacquer, but much harder to both apply and rub out. Polyester is so toxic, the finishers applyng it must wear full haz-mat suits.

However, polyster will not check and crack into that “alligator skin” look, the way lacquer will after a few decades or after exposed to a lot of sun and dryness. And the finish is hard enough that if you can even use a little Windex on a cloth to rub off stubborn spots.

You can clean dirty keys (they will definitely get oily and dirty after hours of play) with a dry cloth, or for a deeper clean, with an all-purpose spray cleanser. My favorite is Formula 409. It’s important to spray the cleaner on the cloth and wipe, NOT spray directly on the keys. Formula 409 will work on both plastic (after 1960) and ivory (pre-1955) keys, and harm neither.

That’s really all you have to do to care for your piano. Your tuner will do everything else, including inner cleaning. Especially in grand pianos with the lids raised, the piano will definitely collect a layer of dust on the soundboard. DO NOT try to vaccum this up yourself, you could damage the strings and dampers. Your tuner has special tools to clean under your strings, leave that to him/her.

Finally, avoid alowing direct sunlight to hit your piano for any extended period of time. Even an hour a day is too much. Appraise the position of your piano and the windows of that room, to see how much sunlight hits your piano directly, throughout the various seasons. If your piano is in a spot where it would be subject to direct sunlight for any extended period of time, either hang window coverings tha will block oout the sun during those hours, or keep your piano covered with one of the many form-fitting canvas or quilted covers available from piano dealers or your technician.

 As mentioned in our posts about early Western music’s evolution, originally there was no harmonic music, as in, two or three notes sang together, or melodies played over accompanying full block chords. Monks chanted Latin hymns, one note at a time, up and down the scale, with nary a third or a triad.

Singing a pleasant string of single notes was as natural as breathing, and probably dated back to pre-history. But when humans started singing or playing instruments in harmony, things got a little more complicated. In order to understand why, we need to take a look at the "mathematics" of the musical scale. Enter our old buddy, Pythagoras.

History teaches us that up until the great Greek philosopher, mathematician and scientist, Pythagoras of Samos, conceived and wrote down his mathematical formula for musical note frequencies, no one had any idea of the mathematical relationships of notes on a scale. But Pythagoras noticed that a note exactly one octave above another note was created by trimming a sounding device, either human vocal chords or a string, to exactly half it’s current length.

This set him off developing the mathematical relationships of the entire musical scale. He was the first to declare a scale made up of 12 equally-spaced semi-tones, pre-defining the 12 tones we now see on a piano, going from any note to the note exactly one octave higher (like C3 to C4.)

As harmonic and chordal music evolved, including the singing & playing of pieces many various keys, an interesting mathematical rule presented itself. If you wanted to sing or play instruments in any potential key, and have all the 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, etc. sound in proper relationship to each other, mathematically you needed 26 "semi-tones" to each octave. The G# in a major E chord (E-G#-B) needed to be a totally different note than the Ab in an Ab major chord (Ab-C-Eb).

This was no problem for singers and other instruments, like the violin or wind instruments, that only played one or two notes at a time. Whenever switching through various songs in various keys, the singers or players compensated by slightly shifting their voice or finger-position or wind pressure to hit the proper frequency for that key. A violin player in an orchestra unwittingly move their finger position just slightly to make a G# or an Ab, respectively.

But then some silly dudes started inventing keyboard instruments that could play whole chords and melody with two hands. Based on Pythagoras’ 12-tone scale, they invented the modern-shaped octave, with twelve white-and-black keys. Trouble is, music was evolving and concerts were now featuring pieces in several different keys, instead of playing every song in the key of C or G (which got boooooring!) but as we discovered, if you were going to play in multiple keys, you needed up to 26 notes to hit every note at it’s pure frequency. And that was just too many keys to an octave. You would have t build a piano twice as wide, or with just 3 octaves instead of 7, to hold all those keys, and no one, not even the biggest-handed pianist, would be able to stretch to play an octave.

So, instead a compromise was reached. The keyboard would remain just 12 notes to an octave, but the piano strings would be tuned just slightly off of "pure" pitch for any interval except the octave, to compensate for moving around through many keys in a concert. That compromise was called "tempering" the musical scale, and over the centuries, many different temperaments were tried, falling in and out of favor. By the modern era, the compromise called the "equal temperament" was settled on, and became the temperament of choice for all modern orchestras and players. Thus, our 20th and 21st Century ears have gotten used to the "equal temperament", and that’s the amount of space between the notes that sounds "right" to our brains.

 The piano is unique, in that it is the only instrument in the orchestra not tuned by its owner/player. Violinists tune their own violins, as due horn players and even harpists. The piano is the only nstrument where the owner calls in a separate serviceperson to tune it for them. Why is this?

First, every piano has about 240 strings that must be tightened or loosened to the exact pitch, then fixed in position so their pitch holds. This requires turning tuning pins so tight that the tuner must use a long-handled wrench and adjust each pin to a precise point. This is further complicated by the fact that most of the piano’s 88 notes are sounded by striking two or three strings together to form just one note, so those three strings must be in perfect unison with each other.

Finally there is the necessity to tune all the 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths etc. – everything but the octaves – a pre-determined amount sharp or flat, to give the piano the proper “temperament.” This is because the piano is on of the only instruments capable of playing full chords in all keys, and if this temperament, or compromise, was not applied, if every note was instead tuned to it’s pure frequency, many intervals and chords would sound wildly out of tune. We’ll go into detail about why the piano has a tempered scale in a later post.

The bottom line is, tuning a piano correctly is a very special skill set, and takes a long time to learn and get good at, and a fair amount of time spent tuning each piano. Most pianists don’t want to bother learning and perfecting those skills; they’re busy enough just mastering playing the thing! So for somewhere around $100 a pop, they call in the tuner.

Pianos also hold a tremendous amount of tension when tuned up to concert pitch. A fully tuned grand piano carries about 2 tons of tension across its scale. If you’ve ever wondered why pianos are all have that massive heavy plate – cast iron, and usually sprayed gold – inside them, holding the strings, there’s your answer. With 4000 pounds of tension constantly pulling, if there were no iron plate, just a wooden frame, it would be reduced to splinters in a flash.

That same constant 4000 pounds of tension, coupled with fluctuations in the humidity and temperature of whatever room the piano sits in, is the reason why they can rapidly go out of tune. Many piano owners balk at the necessity to tune their piano 2 or even 4 times a year just to keep it in perfect tune. That’s $200-$400 in maintenance costs every year, and that’s without added costs of mechanical adjustments and replacement of worn-out parts, so I can understand their hesitation.

Still, it comes with ownership of any fine piano. It’s sometimes useful to remember that the expensive concert pianos on evey concert stage like Carnegie Hall, are tuned before every performance, not just 3 or 4 times a year. Knowing that these pianos are the finest quality, attended to by only the best piano technicians available, should be a hint that no piano, no matter how expensive or well-tuned, holds a perfect tuning for more than a short time, sometimes as little as several hours of hard play. So having you own instrument tuned once every 4 or 6 months is really no big deal. If your piano is subject to many daily hours of hard practice, or you live in a region where there are big constant changes in the climate and humidity, you will need to tune it even more often.

Next we’ll look at how to choose a tuner, and some of the other tasks, beyond simple tuning, he or she must perform on a semi-regular basis to maintain you piano in top form.