cost of getting a piano tuned?
Discussion
Anyone? Rich...You can do a lot of the work yourself. I regularly give mine a tweak as it goes off a bit here and there. The key guide pins are oval for a reason, as well!
If you are looking into getting a grand, it is possible that you may have one with a prehistoric action. If your style has a problem with that, not a good idea. I would see what you can get on ebay, as there seem to be some good pianos going cheap. If you can afford the extra couple of ft, a bigger one generally might save you a few quid, also sounding better.
IMO, Yamaha are the make for all round excellence and some come up cheaper (nasty 80's grands). Ex school are a good idea. Really decent instruments which have been used for sawbenches, etc.
Depends what you want it for, a poncy thing which is beautiful (and has a crap action) or something very bashed up but a good instrument. The latter route is what I take everytime. Although I have a decent piano at the moment. Get the biggest, most modern grand you can with a modern fast action which will hopefully be a bit bashed/broken and then fix it yourself.
The going rate for a tune up is about £40 around here. Although 2 wedges and a hammer will see you doing it yourself. Get it initially set up and keep tweaking it.
Stu (Jazz Pianist/piano tinkerer)
Edit:-I make a point of taking a tuning fork and checking the overall pitch of the instrument. My latest one was miles out, years of tuners tuning it to itself had let it wander. Now the bass strings keep stretching and it has gone off again. It's good to have one on the button even if you play by yourself a lot. Having to do a serious tune up can lead to lots of expensive re-tunes until it settles. Go for a bulky as hell frame as well. It minimises flexing problems.
All IMO
>> Edited by love machine on Saturday 1st January 15:50
If you are looking into getting a grand, it is possible that you may have one with a prehistoric action. If your style has a problem with that, not a good idea. I would see what you can get on ebay, as there seem to be some good pianos going cheap. If you can afford the extra couple of ft, a bigger one generally might save you a few quid, also sounding better.
IMO, Yamaha are the make for all round excellence and some come up cheaper (nasty 80's grands). Ex school are a good idea. Really decent instruments which have been used for sawbenches, etc.
Depends what you want it for, a poncy thing which is beautiful (and has a crap action) or something very bashed up but a good instrument. The latter route is what I take everytime. Although I have a decent piano at the moment. Get the biggest, most modern grand you can with a modern fast action which will hopefully be a bit bashed/broken and then fix it yourself.
The going rate for a tune up is about £40 around here. Although 2 wedges and a hammer will see you doing it yourself. Get it initially set up and keep tweaking it.
Stu (Jazz Pianist/piano tinkerer)
Edit:-I make a point of taking a tuning fork and checking the overall pitch of the instrument. My latest one was miles out, years of tuners tuning it to itself had let it wander. Now the bass strings keep stretching and it has gone off again. It's good to have one on the button even if you play by yourself a lot. Having to do a serious tune up can lead to lots of expensive re-tunes until it settles. Go for a bulky as hell frame as well. It minimises flexing problems.
All IMO
>> Edited by love machine on Saturday 1st January 15:50
Wacky Racer said:
Depending, what standard and how particular you are Baby Grands usually require tuning about every twelve months, cost around £30/50, as they are affected like all pianos by changing climatic conditions........
How very true. My baby grand used to live in the conservatory and my tuner, a Mr. Gotobed (not joking that really was his name
) used to have a fit everytime he came to re-tune it..which was every 3 months @ £35 
Sadly I let the piano go for nothing to a charidee as it was destroying the instrument and I have been keyboardless since
On a lighter note, I donned my tux and went to play the Bechstein in the foyer of the Marriot in Heathrow for Christmas eve and was happily banging out xmas carols for three hours while enjoying complimentary sherry's from the concierge
Fortunately they did not recognise me from 5 years ago when I was physically thrown out for playing friggin in the riggin when I met up with some friends who I used to go to school with
If I needed to tune a piano I would try using a guitar tuner, the chromatic type which can do all the notes. They have built in microphones so just place it on the soundboard and play the note. I've never tried this myself but can see no reason why it wouldn't work just fine. Cost from about £30. Korg always used to be the best make. The better they are the quicker and more reliably they lock onto the note
singlecoil said:
If I needed to tune a piano I would try using a guitar tuner, the chromatic type which can do all the notes. They have built in microphones so just place it on the soundboard and play the note. I've never tried this myself but can see no reason why it wouldn't work just fine. Cost from about £30. Korg always used to be the best make. The better they are the quicker and more reliably they lock onto the note
But being for a guitar with 6 strings, what sort of tuning would you be looking at? I imagine our man would want it to be tuned to itself. Would the tuner spit out a mathematically correct series (ET). That does make a piano sound muddy and shite.
The better devices have loads of different tuning settings which I reckon sounds great. The gubbins costs about £100 and is available from parts suppliers (big). They kick ass. How to make your piano sound better than a tuner can (without one of those gubbins)
love machine said:So, I should reckon on around £50 to get it tuned, thanks for all the advice.
The better devices have loads of different tuning settings which I reckon sounds great. The gubbins costs about £100 and is available from parts suppliers (big). They kick ass. How to make your piano sound better than a tuner can (without one of those gubbins)
LM – this comment interests me particularly. Are you saying that you can tune a piano to have different musical shades by going slightly off what would be mathematically correct? Rich...
RichB said:
LM – this comment interests me particularly. Are you saying that you can tune a piano to have different musical shades by going slightly off what would be mathematically correct? Rich...
Yes. Its a feature of the'well tempered clavier'.
There is no mathematically correct tuning for a piano - for all keys. If you get the correct tuning for Cmaj, it will not be mathematically correct for Gb, for example. The overall tuning is a compromise so all keys sound OK.
This is also why different keys sound better for some pieces of music - the tuning for a minor key is 'better' in some keys too.
Went to a Steinway sales pitch a few years ago. Lots of loverly pianos, and a few punters plaing very complex classical pieces.
So I sat down atthe £50k concert grand, and started playing 'No Quarter'. Followed by Scott Joplin.
The Steinway upright sounded better than any other piano I've ever played - including other grand pianos.
A snip at £16k.
Size Nine Elm said:
So I sat down atthe £50k concert grand, and started playing 'No Quarter'.
Interesting that keyboard maestro John Paul Jones wanted to give up his job in Led Zeppelin, in 1974, to apply for the then vacant job as organist in Winchester Cathedral, but was talked out of it by Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant, who by co-incidence, pre Zeppelin used to manage the New Vaudville band, who's big hit was "Winchester Cathedral"........
>> Edited by Wacky Racer on Sunday 2nd January 14:54
RichB said:
The better devices have loads of different tuning settings which I reckon sounds great. The gubbins costs about £100 and is available from parts suppliers (big). They kick ass. How to make your piano sound better than a tuner can (without one of those gubbins)
So, I should reckon on around £50 to get it tuned, thanks for all the advice.
LM – this comment interests me particularly. Are you saying that you can tune a piano to have different musical shades by going slightly off what would be mathematically correct? Rich...
Piano tuning to the nth degree is a pretty high level subject. I just play the goddamn things! It's like a racing driver who never gets his hands oily!
I reckon a google search would throw some light on the varieties. I think they are a compromising equal temperment, the harmonic series of a stretched string with key based dissonance. Obviously, having a piano tuned to itself (stretched) for a given key is the best way to go. Anyway, I have come this far without resorting to funny tunings. I say "Make it sound great" and the bloke does. £40 later and Bob's my uncle. If you have a really really really nice piano, it would be nice to see what the best you can get out of it regarding this.
stu
Wacky Racer said:
So I sat down atthe £50k concert grand, and started playing 'No Quarter'.
Interesting that keyboard meastro John Paul Jones wanted to give up his job in Led Zeppelin, in 1974, to apply for the then vacant job as organist in Winchester Cathedral, but was talked out of it by Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant, who by co-incidence, pre Zeppelin used to manage the New Vaudville band, who's big hit was "Winchester Cathedral"........
Everso slightly off topic talking of Cathedrals
I used to be an avid pipe organ player, and have played at York Minster Cathedral (largest pipe organ in England) and later on rehearsing at the Albert Hall (not to play there, but with my teacher Michael) a bit of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor..cos a beast of an organ needs that piece played badly.
When we went down into the foyer for lunch, none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber
AND Sarah Brightman were directly infront of us. Webber overhearing our organ related converstion, turns to me and says, "Well I presume that was you who was responsible for desacrating one of Bach's finest". Talk about show stopper, being slated by the ugliest man in the world infront of the most beautiful girl in the world. I was about to say "At least I can practise but you will always look like that
but I bit my tongue instead and smiled.. boy do I regret doing that
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