Frequently Asked Questions

How often should my piano be tuned?

Spring and fall with normal use, perhaps three hours per week. With no playing at all, the piano will still change, due to humidity and temperature fluctuations.

An absolute minimum of one tuning a year will save the instrument from serious deterioration, due to the steel and copper wound strings changing tension and making the piano unplayable, leaving the whole structure without the tension with which it was designed to carry. In this case a "pitch raise" will be necessary which involves tuning more than once, to bring the piano to A440Hz, known as universal pitch, so that you will always hear music at the correct pitch and create tuning stability.

What is regulation and voicing?

Regulation is the fine adjustment of the action. There are about one thousand adjustments to a fine grand piano, and when they are working perfectly in relation to each other, the touch, resonance, sustain of the tone and of course the feeling of absolute freedom and sensitivity will never be forgotten.

Voicing is the conditioning of hammers to provide the desired tone, hard and bright, warm, veiled, penetrating, thin, deep or massive, can all be achieved by highly specialized treatment of the felt hammers. This is very skilled indeed and depends on an active appreciation of tone.

Where should I put my piano in the room?

Position it so it sounds wonderful. Try to get the best out of the acoustics. Place the open part of the grand piano towards the center of the room, leaving a good space behind and the left of the keyboard, to avoid the sound bouncing of nearby walls and distorting the player's sound image.

Don't place it close to a source of heat, which will damage the case and put it out of tune quickly. Direct sunlight will hurt the finish. Don't place it against an outside wall, as temperature changes will change the tuning.