Piano Tuning

Piano tuning specialist in Waltham Abbey

If your piano is in need of tuning or repair work in Essex, get in touch with Joe Dodd Piano Tuning. I can take care of any piano repair or tuning issues from broken strings to toning.
new piano

Services I can offer

I carry out pre-purchase inspections when you are looking to purchase a 2nd hand piano, especially on places such as eBay as you can be taking a huge gamble.

If you are new to pianos, there can be a lot that can be wrong with pianos such as loose pins,action worn out, cracked iron frame, which is a huge expense to try and rectify.

Simple inspection will save you spending a huge amount of money going to waist when you don't have to.

I do carry out running repairs such as string replacement and sticking keys, for any anything more extensive such as servicing grand pianos and other major repairs, I have many friends and colleagues I can recommend for that kind of work.

second-hand piano

Things to consider when purchasing a second-hand piano

  • Worn or stiff action centres: hammers won't come back or notes won't repeat properly
  • The hammer and action felts and leathers can be very worn, this means the action is very noisy
  • The tuning pin can be very loose. This means, if a tuner puts a tuning lever on the tuning pin. It will slip straight of tune
  • The soundboard can have very bad cracks or the bridge can have very bad splits where the bridge pins are and they won't stay in tune long at all. In some cases, the bridge can even come away from the soundboard 
  • In extreme cases, the tuning plank can come away or you can get a cracked frame, in which case it will not tune up at all

Reasons why a piano goes out of tune

The base material
  • In a piano, you have natural woods in the tuning plank, the soundboard and the bridge and natural woods are very sensitive to hot, cold, dry and humid like any other wooden products
  • In a piano, the wood shrinks and expands which will affect the area where the tuning pins are. Sometimes it will go sharp in the cold, flat in the heat or vice versa, which is why they should be tuned at least twice a year. Pianos are much better in moderate temperature
Tension
  • Pianos have many tonnes of tension throughout the whole of the instrument
  • That tension has to be maintained, and if you leave it too long without being tuned, the pitch will gradually drop and the piano will end up being more than a semitone flat. When a tuner has to bring a piano back at concert pitch it may take at least 2 or 3 tunings before you can get the piano to stay where it should
  • A piano string is just like any other string on a musical instrument; if you pull it up a certain amount it's going to drop back a little, which is why it takes a piano a few tunings before it will stay in tune long term
  • The art of a good stable tuning is to move the tuning pin as little as possible, this is known in the trade as setting the pin
  • That's why in a concert situation a tuner should have to move hardly anything at all. If you move the tuning pin around too much, you are much more likely to knock the piano out of tune

Tuning Pins
  • In older pianos, many times the tuning pins are loose. Where they have either been kept in bad conditions, such as excessive heat or wear and tear of turning the pins over the years
Contact
company logo
Looking for a piano tuning specialist in Waltham Abbey or Essex? Call Joe Dodd Piano Tuning on 01992 710 387 or 
07973 689 828

Send us your enquiries

Share by: