Services

In the Washington Metropolitan area, I recommend two
tunings a year based on the humidity changes experienced
in Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. Turning on the heater or
the air conditioner for a season to adjust for personal comfort
can actually play havoc with the soundboard of your piano as
it expands or contracts with the humidity changes. I find with
some clients who play their instrument "hard", or are more
consistent players, or where the instrument is shared among
two or three players with different styles of playing, the piano
needs to be tuned three or four times annually.

Yes, it is possible. I have pianos which I tune in less than 30
minutes, but they are regular tunings for a series of
churches. The pianos basically hold their tune and only
require a little tweaking to bring them to pitch. There are
grand pianos that take me 2 hours on a good day, and 2.5
hours on a bad day. One does not just "tune" a piano. There
are pins which wobble and stretch, wires which do not want
to move under pressure points, and wide variations in the
torque of tuning pins. All those things affect the ability to tune
with speed. The distance a piano is "out" is very significant
as well. On the other hand one has to ask what is the
"standard" for tuning? What is the quality of the piano and its
own capacity for quality tuning? After one has tuned 20,000
pianos, there are certain reflexes that go below
consciousness and become almost automatic. This also
affects one's potential speed. Pressure can sometimes
decrease needed time, and sometime have the opposite
effect. Tuners also have "good days and bad days". All of this
has to be considered in the answering the 30 minute tune
question, and the answer is 'Yes', 'No', and 'Maybe'.

First and foremost, the case is the last of importance. No
doubt though, the case has to be pleasing to your eye and fit
into the décor of the room you plan to place the piano.

Do you like the sound the piano creates when you play it? If
you do, then proceed by opening the top of the piano and see
how it looks inside. Do the hammers look old, worn and
grooved? They can be red flags and often is a good indicator
of the piano as a whole. If the felt at the tip is flat, and there is
virtually no thickness between the striking point and the wood
molding below, this piano has had a long playing life and
therefore significant re-shaping of the hammers. It is not
likely a good candidate for the average person. Look at the
soundboard. Is it clean and intact? If you see a crack in the
soundboard it is not necessarily a disqualifier. I have seen
soundboard cracks large enough to see the wall or floor, but
if there are no buzzing sounds caused by loose ribs or parts
of the soundboard, a crack, especially a small one is of little
concern.

Look at the piano as a machine and examine it as you would
if you were buying a machine. The “guts” make the piano
work. How do they look? Are they clean and neat? Is there a
lot of rust on strings and tuning pins? Are the hammers dingy
looking? Are the dampers compressed so much they wrap
around the strings?

If you can take the fallboard off and lift up a key, look at the felt
or paper punchings of the two pins (front rail pin and balance
rail pin) to see if there is evidence of “critter tampering” – as
in eating. If the guts look bad, you can be pretty sure they are
just that.

Lastly, look for evidence of mouse activity. Mouse drippings,
rust on small segments of the strings and bridge pins often
indicate there has been mouse activity. Mice will also eat the
paper and felt punchings under the keys abs gnaw on the
wood of the key frame and sometimes on hammers. They
often use these “supplies” to build nests.

I suggest you protect your investment by having a
professional move your piano. Moving furniture and moving
pianos are two vastly different areas of expertise, and
capability in one does not necessarily mean capability in the
other. In the DC metropolitan area, I highly recommend
Johnson's Piano Movers. I have found them to be careful,
conscientious, and capable in performing difficult moves. In
the Baltimore area, I recommend Gohn's Piano Moving. You
can find more information about these companies in the
'Links' section of this webpage.

This can be a tricky question. The piano industry is changing
at a pace that it is virtually impossible to keep up with all the
goings on. Much of the piano market now comes from Asia,
especially China, Korea, and Indonesia. Many old,
recognized names have been purchased by very new
companies far removed from connection to the original
companies..... Persons purchasing pianos these days need
to do careful research. Larry Fine's book, "The Piano Book" is
excellent, but often changes occur faster than his book can
be updated. Magazines like "Music Trades" also help. The
consumer needs to carefully research the market, and the
piano manufacturers before purchasing a piano.

If you have problems or questions, please take a moment to
call me.