I tune and repair pianos for schools, colleges and private homes, in the Bolton area. Most of my clients have their pianos tuned to concert pitch A440.

Some pianos, due to their age, cannot be tuned to A440. However, Ialways try to bring the piano up to pitch when possible. Pitch isvery important when learning the piano. Particularly for young children, the wrong pitch can put them off if the note they areplaying on their piano is a semitone flat compared to the one on their music teacher's piano. However, bringing the piano up to pitch takes more time and therefore costs more it can mean more than one visit to stabilise the piano .

Why maintain a piano?

The piano is a highly developed, complicated piece of equipment. It contains about 240 different lengths of highly tensioned wire. (Approx. 160lbs per note and a 15% increase in the bass giving you an overall strain on the frame of 21 tons approx.) These lengths of wire go to make up 85 to 88 notes spread across the musical range. Plus, for each note, there exists a mechanism, which in the case of an upright piano contains up to 14 different moving parts. In the case of a grand up to 22 per note.

Since the piano must be maintained at a specific tension to achieve a good musical sound, the matter of maintenance becomes an on-going process. Since a piano consists mainly of wood and iron, all of this is subject to movement. The movement of the wooden sound board, framework, cause the wires to change tension without prompting by the user. Thus, it becomes necessary to set up a minimal schedule of tuning of the instrument to ensure reliable and pleasant results. Of course, this schedule can't be, nor is it a hard and fast one. But, we can make recommendations and set out guidelines. You should evaluate your piano usage in terms of your own experience.

How often should I have my piano tuned?

For example, if you play the piano several hours a day, and work to a performance standard, it is quite likely, that for your own piece of mind, and that of your listeners, you may need to have your instrument tuned frequently. This could be as often as once a week. But, experience can be a good guide. If you are a parent with a child in school who is learning to play the piano, routine maintenance becomes important. For, a student feels frustrated if clashing notes or poorly functioning and badly regulated action parts foils his or her attempts. We recommend for a family with a piano in general uses that the tuner visit no less than every 6 months. Often more frequent visits may be necessary this isn't out of the ordinary.

What do the Manufacturers say:

Kembles

Tuning and Regulation:

Pianos are delicate instrument: which need professional attention periodically. Basically there are two types of professional piano care: tuning and regulation. Tuning means correcting the pitch of every note by re- tightening the strings. Each piano string is normally stretched to a tension of about 90 kilograms (198.5 pounds), but eventually it will stretch further with use and lose some of its tension, causing the piano to lose its correct pitch. The strings need to be tuned generally twice a year to restore them to their proper tension.

Regulation involves the entire piano action, keyboard and pedal movements. Whether the piano will perform properly or not depends on how accurately the adjustment is made.

Tuning and regulation should be done by an expert. When your piano requires either one, ask your Kemble dealer or just call a specialist. Your dealer can also advise you about the interval between adjustments for your piano under the circumstances in which it is used.

Your Kemble Piano must be regularly tuned by a qualified tuner or technician We recommend this is done at least twice a year.

Kemble & Co Ltd.