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RAYNOR
PIANO SERVICE 843-838-4815 |
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Care of Your Piano Your piano is
a complex mechanism, consisting of over ten thousand moving parts. Each time you play a note there can be over
one hundred parts in motion to make a felt hammer strike from one to three
strings which will vibrate to create the piano sound. There are
over two hundred strings in a piano, each pulled to a tension of
approximately 150 to 200 pounds, so you can see there could be a total
tension in the piano of almost twenty tons!
Your piano is tuned by adjusting the tension on each of these strings
so that each note is in tune with all adjacent notes and in tune with
itself. The pitch of the note A above
middle C is tuned so that it vibrates at 440 Hz (an abbreviation for Hertz, a
fancy name for cycles per second). |
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A piano can be one of the major investments a family
makes, ranking in expense with the family car, a bathroom makeover and
such. When you consider the thousands
of moving parts within a piano, all of which need dozens of adjustments and
some of which need to be correct within thousandths of an inch, you can see
there may be a possibility of something going amiss. If you relate
the care of your piano to the care of your car, it may be easier for you to
understand. Think of tuning your piano
as the oil and filter change, which must be done after so many miles. Most manufacturers recommend that a new
piano be tuned four times during the first year of ownership and every six
months thereafter. A rule of thumb for
you is that your piano needs to be tuned after each 180 hours of play, but
not less than once a year. If your
piano is to be tuned only once a year, have it tuned at approximately the
same time each year. In addition
to tuning, your piano should be checked regularly for proper operation (think
brake job, tune-up or wheel alignment).
All of those thousands of parts will start to wear out and go out of
adjustment as you play your piano over the years. It is a simple matter for a piano
technician to check the operation of your piano at the time of tuning and
make recommendations for adjustments which need to be made. We feel it is better to take care of needed
small repairs each time rather than waiting for a major problem (read major
expense!) by putting off required maintenance. What Can I (the Owner) Do? 1. Maintain
a fairly constant temperature and
humidity level
in the area where the piano is to be located.
Avoid placing the piano by heating and air conditioning outlets or in
a sunny window. 2. Never
place potted plants, drinks, fish bowls etc. on the piano. Spilled liquids can ruin the piano finish
and get onto all those tiny little parts. 3. Never
use oil or grease on your piano 4. Do
not use cleaning products containing oils, waxes or silicones. Clean the keys with a damp rag. We have a complete line of products
specially designed for exterior piano care.
The inside is best left to us. 5. Play
your piano frequently 6. Roaches
and mice love to eat piano parts.
Traps are best placed outside the piano, not within it. 7. Except for a short move for cleaning, do not move
your piano on you own. They are heavy
and the legs can easily break. |