Piano Technician is coming? Any Questions you want me to ask?

[violinist]

Hello,

A piano technician is coming to voice and to tune my piano for the first time.  Anything I should ask or watch out for?  Give me any advice!  I've never had a piano tech come over before!

Also, was there any questions you wanted me to ask him so I can post the answers here?

Let me know.

You can also email me.

[fuel925]

Ask him why dogs noses are wet!

[tompilk]

Ask him what the meaning of life is... 

[abell88]

Ask him the top three most important steps you can take to maintain your piano.

[fuel925]

Ask him the top three most important steps you can take to maintain your piano.

He doesn't need a piano tech to tell him that

1) Have it tuned regularly
2) Keep temperature constant
3) Keep humidity level stable (not too humid, not too dry)

[violinist]

how long do they usually spend with the piano?

[quantum]

Best thing to do is read up a little on the terminology and names of the different parts of your piano.  This usually leads to a more detailed conversation with the tech, as well as enhances your natural curiosity to ask more questions. 

Go look up a diagram of the grand action, and learn it's basic parts, and how it generally works. 

Ask about voicing, what your tech thinks about the overall sound of the piano.  He may have suggestions to do a little tinkering, to make the sound even better than it is now. 

Are you happy with the way the action feels?  I thought I was with my own piano, until my tech decided to bush the knuckles a bit.  It only took 5 mins but made a whole lot of difference in the feel and pressing the keys down was a whole lot less bumpy. 

Anything odd you notice on your piano?  Squeaks, rattles, click noises that only come from certain keys?

Do you like how your pedals work?  Ask the tech to check the alingment of the una corda.  Do you get a clunk clunk sound when you lift the daper pedal up in passages that require multiple pedal changes?  Part of the solution is in pedal technique, the other part in having the pedal properly aligned. 

You know where the copper bass strings end and silver trebble strings begin.  It's called the bichord/trichord break.  In many pianos the transition in this area is not smooth and there is a certain difference in tone here between the two sections.  If your piano has a marked difference you make wish you tech to fix this.  To test it you have to play notes on either side of the break at different volume levels, as the difference may only appear at certain volumes.   

Play all notes forte and staccato.  Are there any that tend to ring with odd harmonics after the dapers have fallen back in place?  Some dampers may need alignment.  Note that the top octaves have no dampers so the notes will ring regardless. 

In another post you asked about scratches on the fallboard from your fingers.  Ask your tech about this too. 

That's all I can think of for now...

You have a really nice piano...and you deserve to know as much as you can about it.  So ask anything else that comes to mind. 

Tell us how it went, and what the tech did afterwards.