Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Cover for High Gloss Piano and Tuning Frequency Question

We have a high gloss Yamaha grand piano G2. I am looking to find a cover for the piano to keep off the dust. Do you know where I could order one? I'd love to buy a custom one. What material should I buy? Do you know anyone that custom makes them? Are piano covers a good idea? I just worry about over cleaning the top and damaging the finish.


Also we haven't had our piano tuned since May and it sounds great. Our tuner in May said it didn't need it then and did a very rough tuning and regulated the piano. Should I make an appointment for tuning since its been 6 months? Thanks in advance!

Whether or not you put a cover on a high gloss, polyester finished piano, it will accumulate microcratches over time. The cover will cause them, and dust will cause them when you try to remove the dust.

I find the least damaging approach is to use a feather duster. These are usually now synthetic, though some natural feather dusters are still available.

They DO NOT pick up the dust (unless treated). I use a vacuum wand and draw the duster toward the vacuum wand. The dust is shepherded toward the wand. It seems to produce the least damage.

Using a cloth of any kind to wipe scratches the finish.

I agree with Prout - the cover might cause fine scratches.

On the one hand, it's a good thing in terms of stability if all your tunings are fairly minor adjustments. If you wait till it's way off, then once it's tuned it will generally tend to go back out of tune more quickly. The other thing to consider is what the seasons are like where you live. If you experience fairly major changes in temperature and/or humidity between summer and winter, then that will tend to throw the tuning off. If you haven't started running your heater yet this winter, you should probably wait until a week or so after you do to get it tuned -- basically, let the piano acclimate to the new conditions for the season.

On the other hand, if you have a good technician and (s)he's telling you straight up that it doesn't need tuning yet, then it probably doesn't need tuning yet. If the piano is in a really nice stable environment and doesn't get much hard playing, it might be reasonable to go yearly instead. I would talk to your tech about it -- having hands (and ears) on the piano, they're really in the best position to help you make that decision.

Thank you. I'll make a call to the local tech and ask him what I should do. We live in a temperate climate but the heat is on.

Thank you proud about your opinion of not getting a piano cover. I'll try your vacuuming/feather duster approach.