Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum How well do most people take care of their pianos?

You put me to shame - I'm too cheap to protect against Auckland's sometimes-humid climate. More than two tunings per year would feel extravagant and would be difficult to organise unless I started having the tuner visit while I'm at work - is this common?
The tuner has told me of some wealthy clients with air-conditioned homes whose pianos are very stable as a result. I doubt these people are running their air conditioning all year round for the benefit of a consumer-grade upright though!


You mean 'Piano Technicians Guide FOR the Piano Owner'. Otherwise we'd be talking about an amusing book compiled from technician accounts about all of the crazy things piano owners do. Loctite on the tuning pins, orienting the piano toward magnetic north to improve string vibration, holding their breath while playing so as not to expose the soundboard to excess humidity..

I have a Dampp-Chaser installed. In the coldest months, I also have a room humidifier (which is a pain to fill and clean).

I get a tuning once or twice a year.

Just had a regulation, at least as far as it was even possible. The original wippens (1928) are showing their age, but I can't afford new wippens (need hammers/shanks too). A whole new action, really. The money just isn't there.

Maybe I should start a kickstarter campaign?

It varies from piano to piano. Some benefit greatly from museum quality stable humidity. Others are stable without humidity control. My tech talked me out of putting a damp chaser on the Knabe, as it holds up just fine without....

My guess is that very few people can keep RH within such a small range even if they use a Dampchaser(which as I understand it only affects the RH near the soundboard), humidifier, air conditioning, etc. Perhaps it's possible in some locations but probably not in the north east.

I also don't have damp chaser. My room is really never dry, even in winter. I only have dehumidifier, which I only need to use it in summer wet days, sometimes also on November days.

You agree with you. Most people live (on this forum) in environment where they struggle to be within 10 % swing, even if they use humidifiers, dehumidifiers, damp chasers etc.

I on the other hand can be within 3-4 % very easy, because I live in environment and a house where swings really aren't big. I don't even need to use any kind of device to stay within 3-4 % for 85 % of the year, just good control with opening the windows.

EXCEPTIONS are summers, the RH (in my piano room) would normally rise from 51-54 % to 68%. In this time I just need to use dehumidifier which is extremely important. I can't even imagine being without dehumidifier on rainy summer days.

So where do you live?

Hi, middle Europe

but I am not so sure the continent / country / climate zones are all that is important, I believe it is especially specific "micro" location and the walls of a house. I also don't have big piano room which makes it much easier to control than large piano rooms. Try to lower or raise RH in a very big room: it will not be easy. Many factors are probably there that we don't even normally consider. My friend (piano tuner) lives only about 60-70 km away from me and he complains about dry winters which I really don't experience.

I tend to agree with this. I control the humidity in the room meticulously, and aim to keep it in the range 58-60%. I am pretty successful with this; the humidity only occasionally strays a percent or two outside this range, and then only for a short time. And the result seems to be that even with over-long intervals between tunings of 2 years (which I feel guilty about!), the basic pitch of the piano holds nicely constant at A=440.

I also rely on my dehumidifier to prevent excessive humidity. The house has central heating, with no air conditioning. But I use the heating in the piano room sparingly, and not at all on frosty winter nights. I personally don't mind the piano room being a little chill in winter. I find that I can control the humidity very nicely by adjusting the humidistat setting on the dehumidifier, and the radiator setting. I am in London, by the way.

WOW! It took me 2 days to figure out that RH meant Relative Humidity, not Right Hand, and Swing wasn't a style of playing the piano!

Your post make sense to me now (embarrassed)

Same thing here. Now it is 9 months since my piano was tuned the last time and I really don't have any wish to call my tuner at this moment. And saying this, I don't believe I am neglecting my piano as "not being serviced enough", though many people will disagree with me.

Then you should invest in a (couple of?) Venta Airwasher humidifiers.

https://www.venta-airwasher.com/

Easy to fill, easy to clean; they are the best humidifiers on the market, in my experience.

Regards,

I play my piano, and have it tuned once a year. It holds its tune remarkably well (it's a Yamaha).

Also, I often play with the silent system.

I don't know about most piano owners.

I have one.
I make sure that the relative humidity does not sink below 40% on average; which is difficult since in winter, when I open the window, the RH sinks well below 35%. After closing the window and turning on the Venta it's above 40% pretty quickly.

In summer sometimes the RH is above 60%. I don't have a damp chaser, and don't want one. But so far, my piano has not gone out of tune too badly after summer.

I haven't had my piano tuned, yet. It was delivered on January and I'm waiting for the heat to come (here, late Spring is already hot) to see how well it holds tuning.

What I'm worried about is that I usually go away for a month in August, and the house remains locked and hot(slightly more than 25ºC average). RH here is around 65%. Before going on summer vacation, during June and July a cooler will be working the whole afternoon.
Windows face SW so it's a must

So, I'll have changes in temperature and RH for the entire summer, between warm night/mornings and 'fresh' afternoons. In this conditions, is it worth to have the piano tuned on, say, May?

Here, just outside Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, summer temp max can vary from 25C to 38C and winter much more mild up to about 25 max with min down below 10C. RH can vary all year from 20s to 99, with the highest in summer.

I have been advised to have mine serviced between seasons - October & April approx.

Thanks for the advice.

I'm glad I can tune my own piano= although I'm on pins and needles when I do and will probably call in a tech if I break a string. I'm finding the frequency is settling down as I go- When I started last Fall, I had to retune several times- the last tuning recorded in the piano was 1993. I think my ear got better the whole time and demanded a better standard each time-

I haven't tuned now for a couple of months- I can hear one note a bit off right now- so I'll probably try to get to that soon and see how much out the others may be- I think it'll take me about an hour, and I probably won't tune again until the Fall-

I can't imagine playing an instrument I can't tune myself otherwise

I have mine tuned about 2 times a year. I keep my home temp very stable all year long, but have two very large water wall fountains in the house. Even when not in use, the evaporate about 1-1/2 gallons per unit each week. My tech says it is not damaging the piano. I hope he's correct.