Piano Humidity Control | Historical Keyboards

It may surprise you to learn this, but most of the time you can’t tell if your piano is in tune or not! While most people can hear the gross inharmony of a badly out unison, the piano usually goes out of tune in a more subtle way. 

Pianos fluctuate in pitch with changes in humidity (and extreme changes in temperature). This is why all piano manufacturers recommend that your piano be tuned AT LEAST twice a year. It is normal for your piano to go out of tune with these seasonal changes. Here is a brief description of what happens:

In winter, the air is drier, and this is compounded by indoor heat, which further dries out the air. This causes the wood in the piano - and there is a LOT of wood - to release its moisture and shrink. This causes the piano to go flat, sometimes to a surprising degree. The reverse happens in the warmer months: the soundboard, ribs, and wooden action parts all swell with the increased humidity, which (among other things) increases the pressure of the bridge on the strings, forcing the piano sharp.

These changes often happen in a uniform manner across the keyboard. The whole piano will drop or rise, and sound “in tune” with itself. So why should you get the piano tuned if it sounds pretty much ok? Three reasons. First, having the piano be at the proper pitch is essential for stability of the tuning. The piano being out of tune can make the piano go further out of tune, resulting in additional expense the next visit from your technician. Second, while tuning the piano, various minor repairs and adjustments can be made before they become a problem! New York Piano Works assumes that we will be making repairs and adjustments for 10-15 minutes each visit, and this is accounted for in the cost of a standard tuning. (If you are not using us, check with your technician to see if they include this necessary aspect of piano care. Third, and most important, having the piano at the wrong pitch makes making music less enjoyable - and can actually damage your sense of what is an “in tune” note. When I was teaching, I had a student (high school) who consistently sang 10-20 cents flat. I couldn’t figure out why this was (and we couldn’t correct it) until one day I went to his home and lo and behold, there was an extremely flat piano in the living room! It had altered his innate sense of pitch. A piano at the wrong pitch doesn’t resonate as well, as they are designed to function optimally at the correct pitch.

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Polyester Piano finish repair | PianoDisc Installation

One of the most often performed and most necessary things one can do to a piano is to have the action serviced. The benefits, compared to the cost, result in great value and a noticeable improvement in the performance of your piano.

Action Servicing involves three procedures: Cleaning the action, tightening all screws, and lubricating action centers. The procedure takes about an hour. 

Cleaning is the first step. The action is removed from the piano, dust and debris are blown out with compressed air (outside of course), and the action is wiped down with cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth.

Next, we tighten all the screws. In an upright piano action, that’s well over 200 screws! We tighten hammer butt screws, whippen screws, action frame screws, and damper screws. In a grand action there are fewer screws: Action frame screws, Hammer flange screws, and whippen screws.

Finally, we lubricate the moving parts. Most pivot points in piano actions are comprised of pins that ride inside cloth bushings. The lubricant that we use clears out dust and debris, lubricates the pivot point, and protects it from future damage. In an upright piano, we lubricate hammer butt flanges, damper flanges, whippen flanges and jack flanges, as well as balance rail pins. In a grand piano we lubricate hammer flanges, whippen flanges, jack flanges, and balance rail pins.

Action servicing should be done every three to five years, depending on usage and environmental conditions. In addition to making the piano play more efficiently and with less extraneous noise, servicing the action also affords the technician an opportunity to examine each of the many moving parts, and correct minor problems before they become major and costly ones. Make an appointment today! 

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Piano Humidity Control | Piano Restoration

There are around 230 strings on the average piano. Each string on the piano has a unique pitch and frequency that must be tuned to the other strings. The sound quality of your piano is determined by these strings, so they must be maintained properly. Due to stress, these strings can stretch over time, causing the piano to become out of tune. Seasonal Changes in humidity also cause the piano to become out of tune.

When pianos are tuned regularly, they are easier to tune, stay in good condition, and maintain their value. Piano tuning regularly also avoids damage caused by overstretched strings. It will be more expensive and time-consuming to get a piano back into tune if it hasn't been tuned in a long time.

If a piano hasn't been tuned in a long time, a piano tuner may attempt to correct the problem by raising the piano's pitch. This involves pulling all of the strings, resulting in a sharp pitch. When the strings naturally stretch over time, causing the pitch to go flat, this overcompensation should keep the piano in tune.

You should have your piano checked every six months to a year to ensure that the strings last as long as possible. If the strings are damaged too much or the keys are not properly working, you should take a piano repair service. 

If you buy a new piano, you should tune it four times in the first year since the new strings stretch more and go out of tune more quickly. If you tune your piano regularly throughout the first few years of ownership, it will be more likely to stay in tune for longer periods of time and during the later years of its life.

Regular piano tuning can increase confidence in people beginning to play the piano, as it's exciting to play piano that's in tune and sounds nice. Standard tuning is for those pianos that have been tuned in the past 6 months to a year. It involves manipulating the tuning pins to bring all the strings to their proper and harmonious pitch. We use a combination of aural and electronic tuning to ensure your piano sounds great! 

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Piano Regulation And Voicing | Grand Piano Regulation

Many of us have been in this situation before. A friend, family member, or acquaintance has a free piano. Free piano! All you have to do is move it, they say. Or maybe you’ve recently moved into a new home that “includes” a piano. If these situations seem too good to be true, it’s because they often are. Pianos are like anything else in the marketplace. Some are worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, and some are absolutely worthless. If you moved into a house with a piano sitting sadly in the living room, the previous owners figured it wasn’t worth the $400 to move it. Why should you be stuck with it? Free pianos are often not worth taking. After moving it for $300-$400, and then pitch-raising and tuning it ($300), you’re in for $700 already! Now factor in regulation and repairs, and you’re well over $1000 invested into a piano that won’t last and won’t sound good. A piano your son or daughter won’t want to play, and one that will just sit and collect dust.

This is not to say that sometimes a free piano isn’t a good deal. Lucky bargains do happen upon us occasionally. But how will you know if you have a lemon or a steal? Bring a piano technician with you to help assess the piano (we’re happy to help). More likely than not, you’d be better off paying for one. For as little as $500-$1000, you can obtain a solid beginner piano that will provide you with years of enjoyment. We have pianos in stock at New York Piano Works that fit this description. They are affordable, play well, and are worth the modest investment. Or, you can take a chance on a “free” craigslist or Facebook Marketplace piano. Just remember, free pianos aren’t free.

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Wessell Nickel and Gross | Piano Humidity Control

FIRST POST! Thanks for checking out this blog page. We will be adding content every week or so, as long as we keep coming up with interesting and informative things to say.

I’d like to start by talking about basic piano care… The aspect of piano care that everyone is familiar with is tuning. Pianos go out of tune due to changes in humidity, which swells and shrinks the wood of the soundboard, bridges, and action parts. This happens regardless of how much or how little the piano is played. We STRONGLY recommend having your piano tuned twice a year. This is in line with all manufacturer’s recommendations. If you put it in terms of car maintenance (the other big, complicated machine in your life), tunings are the oil changes of piano care. It’s important to note that your piano may be out of tune and still sound relatively ok, but not be at the correct pitch. More on this in a future post. Is your piano out of tune? Find out how to determine this here.

A piano is a very complex instrument, with up to 10,000 parts - many of which move and are subject to wear over time. This causes the piano to function at a sub-optimal level, lessening your enjoyment and making playing and learning more difficult. The good news is this is a relatively easy condition to combat. Every 3 years or so, the action should be serviced. To do this, we remove the action, clean it with compressed air, lubricate all action centers, and tighten all screws (over 200 in uprights!). This serves three purposes: it makes the piano play better, avoids problems due to contaminant buildup, and allows for the detection of small issues before they become big ones. If it were a car, this would be the inspection and basic tune up.

As the piano ages, the parts deteriorate. Felt gets compressed, screws loosen, and gravity acts on the hammers. The result is poor performance - lack of dynamic range, the inability to play softly, and unevenness of touch. The solution to this is regulation. Regulation is the adjusting of numerous measurements and tolerances for each note, bringing the piano back to a level of playability it enjoyed when leaving the factory (or better). This takes several hours, but it is a normal and necessary part of caring for your instrument. In car terms, it’s like having the transmission serviced, and alignment done, and a thorough tune up - like a 50,000 mile service. This should be done every 5 years or so, but can also be done piecemeal at your six month appointments to spread out the expense. Vertical Regulation is explained in greater detail here, and Grand Regulation can be found here. 

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PianoDisc Installation | Polyester Piano finish repair

Many people are not aware that humidity can have a profound effect on the tuning and performance of your piano. Humidity is a measure of how much water vapor is in the air, relative to the maximum amount of water vapor it can hold (that’s why it’s called relative humidity!).  Your piano is subject to wide swings in humidity. This is particularly true in the Hudson Valley, where the majority of our clients live. In the summer, humidity levels can go as high as 100%, while in the winter, your heating system can drop the relative humidity in your home into the single digits.

What does this mean for your piano? When the humidity is high, the soundboard and bridges absorb moisture and swell, increasing the tension of the strings and forcing the piano sharp. When the humidity is low, the opposite happens - the soundboard and bridges release moisture and shrink, reducing the downward pressure of the strings and forcing the piano flat. This is why almost all piano manufacturers - and your piano technician - recommend that your piano is tuned twice a year. In addition to forcing your piano out of tune, increased humidity affects the action parts, swelling the wood and increasing friction, which can make your action respond sluggishly (a major cause of “sticking” keys).

How can you mitigate the effects of humidity on your piano? There are several options. The absolute best solution is to have your whole house humidity controlled. This involves either attaching a humidifier to your HVAC system or installing a separate humidifier/dehumidifier system in your home. While this is the best solution, it can be very expensive to install and maintain, and is usually cost prohibitive.

The next, and we think best, solution is to install a humidity control system directly in your piano. The Dampp Chaser company, makers of the Piano Life Saver system, is the only company making these systems. Over the past 74 years they have perfected their system and adapted it to work in all pianos. This system maintains the relative humidity of your piano within a few percent of the ideal level of 45% Relative Humidity. A humidistat regulates the humidity, similar to the way your thermostat regulates temperature. If the humidity is high, the humidistat activates low power dehumidifier bars to dry out the piano. If the humidity is low, the humidistat activates a humidifier - a gentle version of that which you might put in a room. Periodically, you must fill the humidifier tank with water. This can be disconcerting the first few times, pouring water into a tube that disappears into your piano!

In grand pianos, the system is installed underneath the piano, in direct proximity to the soundboard. An under cover will aid in the effectiveness of these systems. A dehumidifier bar is installed at either end of the underside of the piano, and a humidifier tank is located in the approximate middle.

In vertical pianos, the system is installed in the lower half of the piano, inside the knee board. There is one dehumidifier bar which runs the width of the piano, and the humidifier tank generally rests on the bottom board. A watering tube extends from the top of the knee board to underneath the key bed. 

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Piano Regulation And Voicing

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Piano Humidity Control