Piano tuning

[g7jtk]

Out of interest how much does it cast to have a piano tuned?

[elise2000]

Normally a bit cheaper for uprights than grands. £80 for a grand down here in the south west.

[Whats on Second]

We've had electronic guitar tuners for years, I wonder if there's a piano version.

Or does such a task still need a experienced human ear ?

There used to be an Ad in Exchange and Mart [ showing me age now ]
Train To Be A Piano Tuner and make £££££££££s

Piano tuning was one of those government funded training schemes for blind ex-servicemen from WW1
same as cinema projectionists for disfigured ex-servicemen.

[theboss]

As above. Pianos are complex. The middle and upper registers have 2 and 3 notes per string and thats the relatively simple part before you get into regulating the action or voicing the hammers.

I used to pay £65 to have my upright tuned but have just swapped for a grand and will expect to pay more.

[dieselgrunt]

getting a tuner in my area is so difficult i have ordered a hybrid digital piano (kawai novus nv10s)
Tuners are numerous in London and other big cities but further afield it can be hard to find one. Seems to be a dying art with the rise of digitals.

[theboss]

There are a lot less acoustic pianos than 100 years ago and a lot of them probably aren't expertly maintained.

There are still plenty of good tuners and technicians out there, but they have a full diary and need booking well in advance.

There may be less demand overall but I would say its a good trade to take up for the right sort of person.

Another associated piano trade is moving them, and having just embarked on this, observed that the good people in the industry are massively busy and that can't be from moving digitals.

[g7jtk]

Thanks.
There is an upright at an old peoples home that I go to play guitar and we were wondering about offering to get it tuned so we could use it

[deckster]

g7jtk said:

Thanks.
There is an upright at an old peoples home that I go to play guitar and we were wondering about offering to get it tuned so we could use it

If it's not been touched for a while it will need at least two tuning sessions a few weeks apart to get it sounding good. And that's assuming that the internals are all OK, hammer actions working, felt still serviceable etc. By all means get a tuner in to see what they think but if it's been significantly neglected then there's a good chance it won't be at all economic to bring it back to decent working order.

[g7jtk]

deckster said:

If it's not been touched for a while it will need at least two tuning sessions a few weeks apart to get it sounding good. And that's assuming that the internals are all OK, hammer actions working, felt still serviceable etc. By all means get a tuner in to see what they think but if it's been significantly neglected then there's a good chance it won't be at all economic to bring it back to decent working order.

Questions need to be asked before anything is done.

[gazza285]

I worked for a bit as a piano mover for a bloke with a very nice Fazioli Grand, he used to hire it out for jazz and classical gigs. It was tuned after we had set it up, and then tuned twice a day while in use. Non of the tuners had any reference for tuning, they would just pitch up and start twiddling. Other than a tuning key and string muted, there was nothing else involved, the tuners all had perfect pitch. This was getting on for thirty years ago…

[theboss]

gazza285 said:

I worked for a bit as a piano mover for a bloke with a very nice Fazioli Grand, he used to hire it out for jazz and classical gigs. It was tuned after we had set it up, and then tuned twice a day while in use. Non of the tuners had any reference for tuning, they would just pitch up and start twiddling. Other than a tuning key and string muted, there was nothing else involved, the tuners all had perfect pitch. This was getting on for thirty years ago…

Thats like having a GT3 in the garage and letting it out for weekend hires Can't say I would do the same!

[G7orge]

Whats on Second said:

We've had electronic guitar tuners for years, I wonder if there's a piano version.

Or does such a task still need a experienced human ear ?

There used to be an Ad in Exchange and Mart [ showing me age now ]
Train To Be A Piano Tuner and make £££££££££s

Piano tuning was one of those government funded training schemes for blind ex-servicemen from WW1
same as cinema projectionists for disfigured ex-servicemen.

I bought a tuning kit online and used a guitar tuner and app to tune mine last year - as others have said its quite complex! - after my attempt I then paid £85 for a piano tuner person to do it properly..

[gazza285]

theboss said:

gazza285 said:

I worked for a bit as a piano mover for a bloke with a very nice Fazioli Grand, he used to hire it out for jazz and classical gigs. It was tuned after we had set it up, and then tuned twice a day while in use. Non of the tuners had any reference for tuning, they would just pitch up and start twiddling. Other than a tuning key and string muted, there was nothing else involved, the tuners all had perfect pitch. This was getting on for thirty years ago…

Thats like having a GT3 in the garage and letting it out for weekend hires Can't say I would do the same!

He towed it in a rickety old trailer behind what was then a fifteen year old 240 estate, and lived in an ex council semi. With a £57,000 piano in it.

Sounded fantastic though, occasionally he would be double booked for the gigs I was working at, and we would have to make do with a Steinway, which was not even remotely as nice to listen to.

[theboss]

brickwall said:

gazza285 said:

He towed it in a rickety old trailer behind what was then a fifteen year old 240 estate, and lived in an ex council semi. With a £57,000 piano in it.

They’re a bit more than that for a new one now! (IIRC a Steinway Model O is c.£85k and a Model D >£125k)

I don't know about an O but I was offered a choice of new B's (211cm) at a "sale" price £89k recently with the January price list increasing MRSP to £102k

I expect a D will be more in the region of £140-150k

[elise2000]

brickwall said:

theboss said:

brickwall said:

gazza285 said:

He towed it in a rickety old trailer behind what was then a fifteen year old 240 estate, and lived in an ex council semi. With a £57,000 piano in it.

They’re a bit more than that for a new one now! (IIRC a Steinway Model O is c.£85k and a Model D >£125k)

I don't know about an O but I was offered a choice of new B's (211cm) at a "sale" price £89k recently with the January price list increasing MRSP to £102k

I expect a D will be more in the region of £140-150k

Yeah I could well be out of date. To be fair the B is meaningfully more piano than an O.
But surely no-one actually pays full price for a new Steinway/Bosendorfer/etc. Surely the main buyers are the same groups who will likely have discount negotiating power:
- Concert halls
- Conservatoires and other teaching institutions
- Professionals (IIRC Steinway has a pretty extensive ‘artist’ programme with discounts)

The B is a lovely piano. I’m fortunate to have a 1980s one and wouldn’t change it for anything.

[theboss]

I tried a number of B's and absolutely loved them. Unexpectedly, my favourite was actually a NYC instrument rather than the Hamburgs we take for granted and which the Americans pay a significant premium for. Consensus is that the European instruments are generally better, so it shows just how much they are all unique and need to be assessed on individual merit.

At this level though its like dating supermodels and fussing about dialect or hair colour. Outstanding instruments however you look at it.

[AdBall500]

g7jtk said:

Out of interest how much does it cast to have a piano tuned?

Just before the first lockdown I paid £45 - he just used tuning forks, no electronic tuner. Did a fantastic job of it and great to see things done the old fashioned way!

[Simes205]

AdBall500 said:

Just before the first lockdown I paid £45 - he just used tuning forks, no electronic tuner. Did a fantastic job of it and great to see things done the old fashioned way!

Just paid £50 per piano, I had 5 done….not T home at work. South London.

[Roofless Toothless]

A week or two ago I was listening to Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, and wondering if any of the many recordings use different tunings.

I looked up the Wikipedia articles on piano tuning and temperament and to be honest I am amazed at these tuners charging so little given what a complex business it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_tuning

[Simes205]

I was under the impression that it was composed to be played using equal temperament
Different tunings would be where A is 440 here as opposed to let’s say Germany at 445..


Steel pan tuners….use a hammer and ……. an oscilloscope, hear and see the overtones!

Edited by Simes205 on Monday 4th April 22:14