anthony st. pierre's piano tuning

Anthony St. Pierre, M. Mus. has been tuning pianos since 1980. His fee for tuning is $100.00. Because he limits his practice to tuning and minor repairs, this fee is lower than that which tuner/technicians, who regulate and repair pianos, charge.

To make an appointment to have your piano tuned, please call (416) 465-9596.

Preservation of Your Piano’s Tuning

Once you’ve had your piano tuned, you’ll want to keep it that way for as long as possible. To this end, try to keep the humidity and temperature surrounding the instrument as steady as possible. 50% relative humidity is ideal, but atmospheric consistency is of greater consequence than absolute values. Avoid placing the piano near radiators, hot air vents, or in drafts. Where possible, place it along an inside wall. Basements are generally too damp for pianos and may cause rusty strings and moldy felt. If an upright piano must be near a source of heat, attach a sheet of styrofoam to the back to insulate the soundboard.

Even if your piano is not played often, you should, nevertheless, have it tuned once a year. Neglected pianos may require several tunings before they will hold a tuning over an extended period. If someone is playing the piano several times a week, it should have at least two tunings a year -- ideally, once in the fall when the heat comes on regularly, and once in the spring when the furnace stays off. Additional tunings may be necessary if the piano is used to accompany instruments of fixed pitch, if the piano receives heavy use, or is moved.

A small kink forms in piano strings at the points where they cross the wooden bridge that transmits their vibrations to the soundboard. When a piano is left untuned for a long time, the relative position of the strings and bridge shift; a new kink forms elsewhere and the old one vanishes. But a piano tuner relies on kinks formed in the right places in order to get the string to slip easily back into place. If the strings have gone slack, the new kink will get pulled into the vibrating portion of the string as the tuner brings the pitch up. On the short strings of the upper two octaves, kinks will distort the tone, producing a pulsation known as “false beats.” (The kink has little or no effect on the longer strings because its size is negligible in comparison to the overall length of the string.)

Piano Assessment

Action: alignment, wear on backchecks, hammerbutts, hammerheads, jammed or sticking parts, condition of wood, broken springs, bridle straps, loose parts, evidence of repairs
Bridges: cracks or loose pins
Cabinet: chips in veneer, scratches, patina, other damage, cleanliness inside and outside
External hardware: missing or broken fallboard, music rack, pedals, casters, lid
Frame: cracks
Keys: jamming, sticking, loose, chipped, missing
Misc. rattles, squeeks, or buzzes
Pedals: working quietly
Soundboard: cracks
Strings: broken or missing, rusted, general pitch level, false beats
Wrestplank: cracks (presence only evident after tuning)

Anthony St. Pierre
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA

astpierre@ca.inter.net