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Do you think it is "paramount" to let a piano sit for a certain length of time (after it has been moved from one location to another) before tuning it? What are your reasons for waiting (if yes is your opinion) and how long would you recommend the wait to be?
Last edited by Duaner; 08/26/19 09:05 PM.
Duane Graves
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My experience is that it depends on the piano and the conditions. I once rented a decent grand and the company wanted to wait to tune it for a week but I said to do it right away (since I’d just keep it in tune for the 6 weeks I had it). It had zero stability issues. My latest piano barely goes out at all, even right after I moved it. But on the other hand some pianos take a while to settle down, weeks or sometimes months to become stable.
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The primary reason for waiting is to let the piano adjust to changes in humidity between the origin and the destination. Basically, you're waiting for the wood pieces in the piano (particularly the soundboard) to adjust their moisture content based on the relative humidity of the piano's environment.
If you're moving the piano from one room to another room in your house, you don't need to wait. (And if the piano was tuned recently, you probably don't need to tune it either.)
If the piano was moved from one house to another, I think a week or two is a reasonable amount of time for the piano to settle in.
If the piano was moved from one climate region to another, a few weeks might be needed, though I don't personally have much experience with this.
I don't see a reason to wait months. It doesn't take pianos months to respond to seasonal changes in humidity. When there's a hard freeze in the winter pianos respond to that right away.
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Another potential issue for upright pianos: With 4 points of contact with the floor, moving a piano can cause flexing of the back if the new position on the floor has a different topography. Most pianos are strong enough that one wheel can float up off the ground, but there are reports from the field of pianos when moved a few feet to roll out from under an obstruction will alter the tuning when shifted back and forth!
Ron Koval
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Ron,
Yes, I have had have experience with a few spinets that a simple 1 or 2 inch movement (or simply shimming up one leg to stop a rattling caster), threw the bass section out quite a bit. The mistake was doing this AFTER the tuning. Esp though from one house to another or room to room, this wracking is a potential threat for lightly made pianos (4 legged only)
Pwg
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I don't see a reason to wait months. It doesn't take pianos months to respond to seasonal changes in humidity. When there's a hard freeze in the winter pianos respond to that right away. I wasn’t suggesting waiting months. Rather that it can take a while for a piano to stabilise in a new environment. A piano can obviously be affected very quickly by changes but a single tuning after that point won’t automatically make it stable. I always remember one piano I installed a damp chaser on maybe 10 years ago. After 6 months, almost instantaneously, it started staying very well in tune and has behaved exactly the same since (I tuned it for years before installing it and at least once a month during that 6 months after installation, so I know it wasn’t a seasonal thing and it wasn’t a change in HVAC usage at the location, nor was it a change of usage of the damp chaser system)
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I'll wait a couple of weeks if the piano is weak, poorly or not serviced since a long time or if it is a lightweight upright, prone to unsteadiness, as stated by Ron Koval & Peter W. Grey
A strong piano, with a good & moisture resistant finish, is less likely to move a lot - the counterpart may be that it is longer to really stabilize ?
Ulrich Guillerm Piano technician France Ti Piano
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Then again, if after moving it is horribly out of tune due to neglect, and the owner wants to use it right away, I will consent to tune it, however I always warn them that it takes days/weeks to stabilize in its new environment and WILL require a fine tuning again shortly. I will do my best to book the appointment forvrge follow up tuning right then.
Pwg
Last edited by P W Grey; 08/28/19 06:01 PM.
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I bought an older (1985 -86) Kawai 49i" upright about 3 weeks ago.It will no doubt be tuned in about 2 weeks in mid Saptember.The piano has lost some tuning ,also does not sound as mellow as it did.Perhaps because the loss of.tuning ? Do you think waiting until sometime in October would mean needing a pitch raise ?We may be going away In September and I would have no control over humidity levels ? The piano was bought from a local dealer in Vancouver bc. Thanks
Last edited by Lady Bird; 08/29/19 05:18 AM. Reason: Spelling
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