Piano Tuner West Virginia on Types of Wood in the Piano Action

As your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas, I am occasionally asked about the types of wood used in a piano. Piano owners typically believe that a piano is made out of a single types of wood. In fact, every piano is made of several types of wood. The reason is that different parts of a piano have different stresses and have varying requirements of weight and strength.

One of our recent articles discussed the types of wood used in the outside piano case and in the soundboard. This article will talk about the types of wood used in the mechanical part of the piano, the piano “action.” The action includes the everything from the keys to the piano hammers that strike the piano strings. In short, everything that moves. We will start with the keys. The keys need to be very light, so that they will react quickly to the touch of the pianist’s hands. For that reason, they are usually made of pine, a light soft wood. The keys must withstand large forces, however, and the soft wood would not be able to do that. To prevent problems, a maple inset is glued in each key at the pivot point, where most of the force is centered. Maple is one of the hardest woods.

The upward movement at the back of the piano key is transferred to the next piece of wood, called the wippen. The wippen is a complex structure made of several pieces of hardwood, since the forces on it are considerable. From the wippen, movement is transferred to the hammer shank. These are almost universally made of maple, as the forces on this piece are the greatest in a piano. The hammer shank is thrust toward the strings at high speed for greatest volume.

At the end of the long lever of the shank, the hammer is glued. Hammers are usually made of maple at their core, although some pianos use mahogany. The hammer is covered in high quality felt, so it will withstand thousands of impacts with the strings. The damper mechanism is located behind the piano action, and is usually made of maple as well.

If you have any questions about pianos or piano tuning West Virginia or the surrounding areas, please feel free to contact us at Harker Piano Service. We are your piano tuner West Virginia and the surrounding areas piano services experts.