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Topic: Piano Maintenance  (Read 1938 times)

NetherMagic

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Piano Maintenance
on: July 02, 2003, 03:47:05 AM
Hi, first of all, I'm very green on this subject, so I'm thinking this might be a long topic.

First of all, I've heard of tuning and regulation before, are there any other technical piano maintenance terms that are commonly used?  And what they mean?

I'm using a 8-year Petrof upright, console I believe, and I get someone to tune it like maybe once a year?  and I've never got anyone to do a regulation check on it before, so that gives you a clue on how much I know about piano maintenance  ;D

And I might be getting a grand Steinway or some other brands, how often should they get tuned and regulated?  And how much do they generally cost?  (I get my piano teacher's husband to tune my piano so it's cheaper than the normal price)

And just wondering about your personal piano maintenance habits, do you often do it the traditional way of putting that piece of cloth on the keys and then closing the cover or wutever you call it, then spraying those things on the keys to make them shiny and slick and all these?  Well I never do that.  sometimes I just leave the cover hang it open and I think I lost that cloth.

Btw are there any good books you guys could recommend me to read on the general piano structure and piano maintenance, including all things like the diff parts of the piano, tuning, regulation, wiping the dust off the board, and all those other stuff?  That'd be SOOO great, thx  ;D

Offline dinosaurtales

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Re: Piano Maintenance
Reply #1 on: July 02, 2003, 08:29:16 AM
You will probably get a more technically correct answer out of Brian Lawson, but till he replies, here goes:

Regulating has to do with the action parts.  If you look at the action, it looks like a Rube Goldberg device, with little teeny parts.  There are pieces of felt in between the the junctions that will get squished over time, so the notes that are played a lot will get squished more and sooner than lesser played notes.  This will make the action feel uneven eventually.  So regulating is replacing felts and adjusting the action so it's even again.  You shouldn't have to do this every year!  

Voicing has to do with the hammer felts, which also get pounded down by playing a lot.  The notes that get played a lot will start sounding *brighter* than ones that don't, and over time, will sound uneven.  There are various techniques that are used to soften up the hardened hammers with needles or harden soft hammers with liquid to even it all back up so all the notes sound the same and sound bright or dark depending on your taste.

A really good book to read is called the Piano Book by Larry Fine.  You can get it through Amazon.com or Brookside Press directly.  It's not expensive, but it's got a ton of good info about how pianos work, what terms mean, costs, and brands.

I suspect my piano will be tuned twice a year once it's settled in.  But that is just the seasonal change here in Portland, Oregon.  Other places may only need yearly, some more often.  If you have humidity control in your house yours may go longer than mine.  My relative humidity inside runs betwee 45 and 55% almost all year.

I have more *habits* than most folks, I'm afraid, because I have a cat that I do NOT want inside the piano.  So I close the lid, put the cloth thingy on the keys, close the fallboard, and put on the cover each night.  I also work the insides gently with a vacuum brush attachment every other week or so to keep cat hairs and dust out.  This may be overkill,  but it's a new piano.  What the heck!
So much music, so little time........

NetherMagic

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Re: Piano Maintenance
Reply #2 on: July 02, 2003, 08:38:05 AM
haha thats nice dinosaur thx for your help

i have a cat too but I like to have her walk on my keys, havin her makin all those dissonance just cracks me up

I think she's also scared of walkin there because of how these weird sounds keep comin up everytime she takes a step haha  ;D

Offline dinosaurtales

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Re: Piano Maintenance
Reply #3 on: July 02, 2003, 08:49:50 AM
Yeah, me too.  My cat likes to *help* me *play* the piano. She is pretty funny.   But I won't let her get into the strings.  That's where I draw the line!  Am I nasty, or what?
So much music, so little time........

Offline Brian Lawson, RPT

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Re: Piano Maintenance
Reply #4 on: July 02, 2003, 09:23:22 PM
As DinosaurTales mentions the Larry Fine book is recomened. If buying new, the piano is already tuned several times and regulated (each part adjusted to spec against all other parts so that there is uniform response) in the factory and then the dealer will ensure the piano is prepped (regulated/voiced/tuned) to your satisfaction and it gets tuned again after delivery.

What is the expertise of your piano teachers husband as a tuner? what is the "normal" price that you are getting it cheaper at?

Brian Lawson, RPT
South Africa
https://www.lawsonic.co.za

NetherMagic

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Re: Piano Maintenance
Reply #5 on: July 02, 2003, 11:05:37 PM
about the price im not shure, cuz my mom pays for it, thats why im askin you guys bout how much you guys pay for the tuner

and about the teacher's husband, his major's in music and he attended music academy and well basically he knows everything (figuratively speaking, of course), but I do know that he went to one of those tuning schools before and also the Yamaha tuning school or something, I'm a bit vague on that area
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