Do all pianos require yearly tuning?

 

 Yes - A piano which routinely goes more than a 1-2 years without tuning will eventually develop major structural issues with the sound board and intricate string bridges - This is because ALL pianos are designed to remain at full tension at all times. Forever.

 

Why do pianos require to stay at full tension?

 

Let's start at the basics! The piano is a percussion instrument, and once you get a piano to hold tune - you have to keep it in tune!  This may sound confusing at first to some, but the strings of a piano are completely different than a guitar or violin, etc.  Stringed instruments do not require tension on their necks, meaning you can de-tune them or put new strings on as often as you like!  Pianos on the other hand take a full 1-2 years to even start holding tune after leaving the factory.

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This two year period is critical and provides the very important break-in period for the strings to settle and gain the ability to hold full pitch for about 6 months. A piano can only "hold tune" after the break-in period, which means the piano is now capable of staying near enough to full tension for 6-12 months.  But it must stay as close to full tension as it possible at all times, otherwise it will eventually lose its ability to "hold tune" all together.

 

Why do pianos lose ability to hold tune?

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A piano can only hold tune if it is continually being tuned.  Now this all may sound counter intuitive at first to some, but the piano is not my invention - I only rebuild them :)

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All pianos will lose their ability to hold tune when they stop being tuned during their required factory interval of once or twice per year. 

 

This is easy to understand when you understand what the piano strings are doing and what the tuning does for the strings. There are over 230 strings and each string has 4 very important creases that take two full years to break in.  After two years and lots of tunings; each string will now have formed four (4) very precise bends.  These very precise bends can only remain in their place if the piano is getting tuned once every 6-12 months - essentially keeping the piano in tune, and keeping the strings from loosing all these fragile little bends that it took so long to form.

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What happens if we stop tuning the piano after 2 years?

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All pianos are going flat little by little every single day - every single hour, but it is very, very slow and not noticeable to most people.  But your tuning is always changing slightly all the time.  

 

After 6-12 months all of the precise bends that took 2 years to form and become strong are slowly slipping out of their place little by little.  After 6-12 months they have all slipped a little, but they are still close enough to where no damage has occurred to the precise bends.  This means a decent sounding tuning can be accomplished without a lot of extra work.  But after 1.5 to 2 years the string bends are now starting to straighten out as the string wants to relax (not good), but not only are the old bends being ironed out - new bends are being started in the wrong parts of the string as the string loosens more and more and continues to slide down the anchor points (super duper not good).

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This is why tuning an old free piano can literally be impossible and very expensive if it is even"tune-able"at all.  

 

Unfortunately no one is giving away their piano that they are tuning and playing every year. These really good pianos are all staying in the family until someone stops using and tuning them for 10+ years and then someone finally kicks it to the curb.  Unfortunately it is usually best to leave them on the curb or make a desk out of them :)

 

Too many people are donating their old piano to churches only for these churches to end up with a collection of old pianos that won't hold tune. Yikes!

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Better to call A.M.O. and we can rebuild your old piano for less than the cost of a good quality new piano - plus old pianos play and sound supremely better than new pianos every single time we get done with them!

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What about the hammers?

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Other than the strings; the Hammer mechanism is one of the most important parts of the piano and are largely responsible for the "voice" of the piano. The condition of your hammers will directly determine whether your piano will sound extremely beautiful and clear - or just okay.

 

The hammers or "mallets" are controlled by your fingers using a special mechanism called "the action" inside the piano which connects to the keys. The keys will respond to even the most delicate of touches when the keys are fully calibrated by a professional technician. Pianists who play very hard and heavy often times develop this habit because their piano is much over due for calibration, and the delicate touch is no longer there.  A.M.O. Pianos specializes in piano calibration and regulation services.  

 

Did you know that all pianos are capable of responding to that supreme delicate touch that you get with a brand new piano?  Yes, it is true - They are usually just too gunked up inside and require routine calibration or rebuilding from an experienced piano doctor to get that delicate touch back again!  :)
 

Give us a call any time no matter what part of the U.S. you live in. We restore and rebuild pianos from all over the country and would love to hear about YOUR piano!

Call or text any time!
615-496-9702