Piano Tuning: Can An Amateur Do It?
When you feel your piano sounds slightly off, you might have a protective urge to tune the instrument yourself. It is characteristic of advanced piano owners to take up the piano maintenance & tuning task themselves. However, sometimes, if a pianist is innate, tuning might still not be their strong suit.
In such circumstances, you would be all the wiser to enlist the piano tuning experts at PianoCraft. After all, piano tuning is not as easy as an acoustic guitar. But we have to consider your curious spirit, so out of concern, may we enlighten you on the challenges of piano tuning?
Sustaining the Pitch
Take it this way, in a guitar, you just grab an electronic tuner or an app and keep twisting the pins to reach the desired pitch. In a piano, it’s one thing to reach the pitch, but sustaining it on an instrument that large is – well, hard to explain!
String Breaker
Piano strings are kept taut at much higher tensions than a guitar. If you turn the pin a bit too far, you risk breaking the string. That will require strings, parts, and expertise to get one string right. But if you die too many, you’re in for a complete string overhaul because too many different & new strings won’t work in tandem with old strings.
Loose Locks
If you just got an old piano from a former owner (not through a restored piano dealer), chances are its pin locks are loosened. It means that the pins won’t hold the string tension (or the pitch); you can’t get the strings tuned without an expert tuner & some severe restoration.
Electronic Hacks
If you think downloading some 5.0 rated piano tuning app makes you an authority on the subject – NO! There are no cheap tuning aids for the behemoth of an instrument.
Regardless of how much you spend on a standard equal temperament tuner, you just can’t nail the correct pitch without a well-honed auditory expert. There are too many divisions of strings that need their pitch on point, much like a harp.
The Expenses
Let us be subtle; if you are an amateur, you are looking for a quick fix to your tuning problems. In that case, you are looking towards an excess of $1000-$2000 if you decide to get an electronic chromatic tuner. If you think you can manage with a tuning kit, which is far much more inexpensive, then you’re out of your depth. Manual kits are for god-tier tuning professionals who know a grand inside-out!
While we’re not discouraging, we have your best interests at heart. Thus, we offer you the opportunity to have your piano tuned at very affordable & hassle-free rates by PianoCraft’s pros. If you need repairs or restorations, we’re the maestros for the job in Fairfax County, VA.
If you want to take tuning out of the equation entirely, you can always trade-in for a digital, but for now, best to book for a professional tuner!
