ADVICE

Do you need advice on buying a piano? What to buy, what not to buy and where to buy?
Where to site your piano - yes, it does matter!
How to help your piano stay in tune, be it on the concert stage or in the home.
How to solve problems, such as woodworm, moth or mice infestation.
What about flood damage?
How to solve damage of any kind.
Quotations for insurance purposes.

WHY DO PIANOS NEED TUNING?

Because of the tension on the strings there is approximately 200 tonnes of pressure across the back of an average piano. This is a huge force. The stretched strings are pulling at the piano frame, trying to ease this tension. Regular tuning maintains the tension and the beautiful harmony of the instrument. It also provides an opportunity for regular inspection to assist with the possible diagnosis of potential piano health problems.

CASE HISTORIES

1
I visited a customer who had recently moved to a new house. The beautiful Viennese concert grand piano that had previously stood in a relatively unused music room in a large house with little heating, had been placed in a modern, centrally heated sitting room next to a radiator! When I arrived, I found that the wooden parts of the piano had dried so much that it was almost impossible to tune it. We saved the piano just in time and it had been fine ever since. Had the piano been left any longer, it would not have survived.

2
One autumn I was called by a customer who organised the regular tuning of the local church piano. I had tuned the piano many times before and it was a fine upright instrument. Now, however, many of the keys didn’t play and when pressed, stuck down. With a Harvest Festival service looming, what was to be done? On opening up the piano, the cause was immediately evident. Mice! Although not nesting IN the piano, (they get in through the pedal holes), they had found lots of lovely felt and leather to nibble on and had left their droppings on the backs of the keys. The droppings had fallen between the keys causing them to block. The problem, although great, was not too serious and now all is well.

3
I had tuned a piano for a new customer and I drew her attention to the fact that it was not playing as well as it should. Many of the red-nosed tapes in the action were broken and playing the piano was difficult. After replacing the old tapes and regulating the piano action, my customer is amazed at the improvement and she is now able to play pieces that she thought were beyond her capabilities.

4
I was telephoned by a new customer who had just bought an inexpensive, second-hand upright piano. But when they tried to play it the carpet below the keyboard was sprinkled with white dust. Why? The piano was riddled with woodworm…!

5
I was asked to tune a grand piano for a well-known professional musical duo at a concert venue to raise money for charity. However, on arrival, I found the sustain pedal was totally out of action. I tuned the piano, which sounded gorgeous but what about the pedal? Well, with less than a few hours to go before the concert, time was running short. The piano was eventually working for the concert, but needed some additional work at a later date.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO TUNE A PIANO?

Usually it takes about an hour and a half per visit.

However, I have to say that when I was engaged to tune Sir Elton John’s piano on his concert tour in Northamptonshire, the stage management insisted that I had only forty-five minutes in which to tune the piano. The piano, having been badly tuned at the last venue, was wildly out of tune by concert standards. Within the hour, the piano was ‘up to scratch’.

On the other hand, if a piano hasn’t been tuned for years, it can take much longer than this.

CLIENT LIST

I have tuned pianos for the following…

And regular tuning with my wonderful domestic clients, churches, concert venues, operatic societies, schools, piano and singing teachers throughout the county and beyond.