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Piano Tuner West Virginia Concludes Why Tune a Piano If It Is Not Used

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, I am often asked why bother to tune a piano if it is not being used. Our last few posts discussed the stress to the piano’s strings when proper tension is restored after an extended period without tuning. This post will discuss the stress to the soundboard, an integral part of your piano, if your piano were not tuned regularly.

The soundboard is the large piece of wood below or behind the strings on your piano. Its purpose is to amplify the sound from the piano strings. Without a soundboard, your piano would be about as loud as an electric guitar with the amplifier turned off. The vibrations from the strings are transferred to the soundboard, which amplifies the sound. The typical soundboard is only 3/8″ thick and made of spruce, a soft wood. The reason spruce is used, is that it transmits sounds faster along its grain than any other wood. For a piano to perform well, it needs to transmit the sound from the string to the whole soundboard as quickly as possible. The soundboard is a relatively fragile structure, which has about 500 pounds of total pressure on it from the strings.

When a piano is properly tuned, the pressure on the soundboard is distributed according to the initial design of the instrument. When a piano goes out of tune, however, the tension is not released evenly. The stresses of strings at different pressures can torque the soundboard, resulting in stresses to the relatively fragile structure. A cracked soundboard can vibrate when the piano is played, making the instrument unusable. Repair of a cracked soundboard can run thousands of dollars. Usually, the piano must be moved to a piano shop. The strings, tuning pins, and cast iron plate are removed, and the soundboard is secured to the ribs below. Then the cracks are shimmed and the whole piano soundboard refinished. Following that, the plate would be reinstalled and the instrument restrung.

We recommend simply marking your calendar to tune your piano regularly. The majority of piano makers recommend twice a year. If you have other questions about pianos, please let us know. We are your West Virginia piano tuning expert.

Piano Tuner West Virginia Writes More On Why Tune a Piano If It Is Not Used

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, I am often asked why bother to tune a piano if it is not being used. Our previous post discussed one way that the piano’s strings are stressed when proper tension is restored after an extended period without tuning. This post will discuss a second structural component that leads to stress on the strings.

You may recall from the previous post, that the total string tension on a piano is around 30,000 pounds, which the structure cannot maintain for an indefinite period of time. Pianos must be tuned very 6-12 months, or the tension and pitch drop too much to be brought back up in a normal tuning. If a piano is not tuned regularly, then the tension must be restored with a special procedure. The problem lies in the high tension on the entire instrument. That tension has a downward component onto the soundboard of about 500 pounds. As strings are raised in pitch, the downward force on the soundboard is increased, causing the entire instrument to flex. The result is that for every amount the pitch is raised on a string, the pitch falls 10-38% of that amount in ten minutes. In order for a string to be tuned to standard pitch, it must be tuned higher than that pitch. The amount it must be over-pulled differs on different parts of the piano. In the bass section, that amount is usually 10-12%. In the middle of the piano, it is usually 19-30%. In the treble area, it can be as much as 38%.

When piano strings are tuned to proper pitch, they are at 70% of their breaking tension. They are set to that tension, so that the piano will have enough volume to fill a a concert hall with sound. If a piano is not tuned for a long time, the tension can drop as much as 100% of the way to the note below. If that string were to be raised all the way to the proper pitch, it would need to be over-pulled 10-38% above the proper pitch. You can see that this puts the strings at danger of breaking. If you couple this with the information from the last post about the higher tension near the piano tuning pin, you can see that the strings are significantly stressed when restoring the pitch to a piano that has not been tuned in a long period. It is much better to simply mark your calendar and tune the piano regularly, even if it is not being used. Our next post will discuss the stress to the soundboard of the piano, if the piano is not tuned regularly.

If you have a question about pianos, please let us know. We are your West Virginia piano tuning experts.

Piano Tuner West Virginia On Why Tune a Piano If It Is Not Used

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, I am often asked why to tune a piano if it is not being used. Some background on the design of pianos will help make the answer clearer.

Pianos have over 200 piano strings which have about 150 pounds of tension on each of them when the piano is tuned to the proper pitch. If you multiply 150 times 200, you get over 30,000 pounds of total tension on a wooden instrument. Even though the structure is reinforced with cast iron, the tension is held by wooden parts. A wooden structure cannot maintain that amount of tension indefinitely. Pianos must be tuned every 6 – 12 months, or they drop in pitch too much to be brought back up in a single tuning. If the piano were played during that time, it would put the piano out of tune slightly more, but the major factor is simply time.

You might ask, “So what? Can’t the piano technician put it back in tune after a number of years?” The answer is usually yes, but with extra expense and possible damage to your instrument. There are two types of structures which are typically stressed in that scenario. The most obvious are the strings. It does not stress the strings to be out of tune. The stress to piano strings comes when the tension is increased as they are raised back up the proper pitch.

When strings are tuned to their proper pitch they are set at about 70% of their breaking tension. When strings are raised in pitch, the tension can get dangerously close to the breaking tension. Two aspects of the strings contribute to that. One is the configuration, where only the middle of the strings is heard. This part of the string is called the “speaking length.” At the top of the speaking length is a bearing point through which the string runs in order to reach the tuning pin. As a result of friction at the bearing point, the portion of the string leading to the tuning pin must be at greater tension than the speaking length. The tension on the portion of the string leading to the tuning pin therefore gets close to the breaking tension when the pitch is raised.

There is another contributing factor which will be covered in our next blog post. if you have any questions about pianos or their maintenance, please let us know. We are your West Virginia piano tuning experts, and we provide professional piano services in the surrounding areas as well.

Piano Tuner West Virginia On Piano Weight

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, I am often asked why a piano is so heavy compared with a table or any other musical instrument. Typically, a piano buyer asks this question as he is gathering friends to move his piano, rather than hiring professionals. Here is a short explanation of why the piano is so heavy and why it is best not to ask your friends to move one.

Pianos have over two hundred strings, each with a tension in the neighborhood of 150 pounds. The reason for the high tension is to have greater volume, so the sound will fill a concert hall. If you multiply 200 strings by 150 pounds, you will get 30,000 pounds of tension on the instrument. Originally, pianos were made entirely out of wood and had a much smaller number of piano strings at much lower tension. As the design of pianos evolved, more strings were added and the tension was increased. It soon became obvious that a wooden structure could not support so much tension. The pianos actually started folding in on themselves. There are examples in museums of early instruments of such pianos going into “wind,”as in “wound up.” “Wind” is pronounced with a long “i”, rhyming with “bind.”

In order to keep pianos straight, piano makers began putting cast iron rods, then plates in pianos to support the high tension. By the late 19th century, most pianos had what were called, “Three-quarter plates”, which ran from the tail of grand pianos and the bottom of vertical pianos up to the pin block, the block of wood that supports the piano tuning pins. By 1900, most pianos had “full cast iron plates” which also covered the pin blocks. All modern day pianos have “full cast-iron plates,” weighing hundreds of pounds. Cast iron is used, because it bends very little under tension.

That brings us to the final bit of advice. It is not worth risking your health and that of your friends, in order to save a few dollars moving your piano. Additionally, every piano tuner has seen pianos that require hundreds of dollars of piano repairs after amateur movers damaged a piano. It is simply not worth the risk.

If you have other questions about pianos, please let us know. We are your piano tuning West Virginia expert. We also provide professional piano services in all of the areas surrounding West Virginia.

Piano Tuner West Virginia on How to Buy a Piano

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, Harker Piano Service provides top-notch piano services and piano maintenance. We are happy to advise you with the purchase of a piano.

Pianos vary widely in condition and quality, often for the same price. In addition, you would assume that all pianos work properly, but that is not the case. Cynical piano manufacturers know that most people buy a piano based on its appearance rather than how it functions. As a result, there are numerous pianos on the market that look great, but do not play well. Parents who do not play piano are often fooled into buying these pianos, not knowing that their children will likely find it too frustrating to try to learn to play on an instrument that does not function properly.

Learning to play the piano is a relatively complex process. A child usually needs to invest a lot of time into practicing before the reward of beautiful music is reaped. Learning to play on a properly functioning instrument is difficult enough, but if the notes on a piano do not work properly, the task can easily seem overwhelming. If your child loses their enthusiasm for play, it is unlikely that they will regain it easily. As a parent, you really have only once chance.

We are happy to advise you over-the-phone regarding the best choice for your piano purchase, whether it be a new piano or a used one. There are often excellent values on the market of used pianos, but purchasing one requires additional support. We can advise you as to which brands are worth considering, and where to find them. Then, after you find one that you want to consider, we are available for a reasonable fee to evaluate the instrument to make sure that it is in good working condition and is not worn out or damaged in any way.

If you have any other questions regarding pianos, please consult us. We are your West Virginia piano tuning experts.

West Virginia Piano Tuner On Regular Piano Tuning

Your West Virginia piano tuner, Harker Piano Service, is prepared to keep your piano playing at its very best by providing top-notch piano services in West Virginia and the surrounding areas.

In order to gain the maximum enjoyment when playing your piano, the instrument should be kept in tune with regular piano tunings and general piano maintenance. By doing so, the sound of the piano will be much more pleasing to the ear and to the temperament.

You might wonder why a piano tuning is so important, and why a piano doesn’t just automatically stay in tune indefinitely. One of the main reasons for this is the constant changes in weather. Since a piano is made up primarily of wood, it reacts to the various changes of temperature and humidity. These fluctuations cause inconsistent changes in the piano string tension throughout the entire instrument. Due to this, the strings on your piano will no longer have the proper relationship with one another.
As a result, too, pianos are constantly changing in pitch. For concert performances, pianos are often tuned twice within the same day, typically one time before the rehearsal and then once again right before the performance. Your West Virginia piano tuning expert knows that this is what is required in order to have the sound be optimal.

For pianos in the home, such perfection is not necessary, nor would it be feasible economically. All piano manufacturers recommend tuning a home piano at least twice a year, even if the piano is not being played. Your West Virginia piano tuner, Harker Piano Services, has both the knowledge and piano work experience needed to keep your piano in excellent condition throughout the changes of the seasons. Piano tunings can be arranged on a regular, on-going basis, or you may contact us whenever you need a piano tuning, piano maintenance, or any type of piano repairs.

We proudly provide piano services in the entire West Virginia area! We would look forward to serving you.

Piano Tuner West Virginia Explains Importance of Piano Tuning

Did you know that a piano has over 200 strings at 150 lbs. tension each, totaling 30,000 lbs. of tension? Even though a wooden structure is reinforced by cast iron, it cannot maintain that high level of tension indefinitely. When your piano is tuned every 6-12 months, the pitch falls about 2-5% of the way to the note below, so that amount can be raised in one tuning. However, if the time in between piano tunings is beyond a year, the pitch falls too much to be brought back up in just one tuning. This is because for every amount your piano tuner West Virginia raises the pitch on a piano string, it falls back 10-38% of the amount of the change over the next ten minutes. That is a small amount when the change is 5%, but it becomes significant when a piano is 20-50% low.

When the change in pitch is a larger amount, it can be difficult to predict precisely how much it will fall. The proper procedure, therefore, is to simply rough tune the piano 10-38% above standard pitch, and it will fall to standard pitch again as it is tuned. It will then be fine-tuned at standard pitch. This entire process takes approximately 2 hours for your piano tuning West Virginia expert to achieve.

If a piano hasn’t been tuned for ten years or more, it might be more than 50% low. If this is the case, your West Virginia piano tuner, Harker Piano Service, would need to do two rough tunings in order to bring up the pitch; however, your investment would be proportionally more. Properly tuned piano strings are designed to be at about 70% of their breaking tension, so that the sound of your piano will be loud. If your piano technician were to try to raise the pitch more than 50%, there would be a greater chance of breaking piano strings. The correct process, therefore, would be to raise it part way in just one rough piano tuning, then the rest of the way with another second rough tuning, and then fine tune the piano.

As your piano tuner West Virginia, I will examine the overall condition of your piano upon my arrival and then give you a proposal for the work it needs. If you approve of the piano work that needs to be done, I can usually do the piano tuning and/or piano repairs the same day. If needed, we could schedule your piano services work for another time that would be convenient for you.

Piano Tuner West Virginia – Offering Expert Piano Tuning Services

Serving West Virginia and surrounding areas since 1996, Harker Piano Services, your piano tuner West Virginia and surrounding areas provides extensive tuning and piano repair service with consistent top-quality professional results. Your piano tuner West Virginia offers high level piano tuning and repairs at a reasonable price. My purpose is to contribute to both the beauty and enjoyment of your piano playing experience.

Many of my new piano services customers are referred by a friend or relative who knows that they can trust and depend on my high level of experience and competence. Whether it’s a grand piano that’s in a concert hall setting or a grand piano or an upright piano in a home, it’s my goal as a piano technician to provide top quality piano services to each piano customer.

The majority of my piano services and piano maintenance work is done in homes. However, I am always available for either home, school, concert, church or studio tunings on all major brands of both upright and grand pianos.

Every major piano manufacturer recommends that their pianos be tuned twice yearly, but they can be tuned more frequently if needed depending on the amount of use. Piano tuning restores the balance of a piano by returning it to the proper standard pitch. Regular tuning allows your piano to sound pleasant in any chosen key.

Having over 22 years of experience with all types of piano work – from minor repairs to major repairs – your piano tuning West Virginia technician, Robert Harker, is ready to provide you with exceptional piano tuning services that you will be 100% satisfied with.