FAQ What should the piano tuner be expected to do and why?

[FAQ's]

Assuming that the piano has been maintained to a quality standard down the years, the tuner should be prepared to maintain the piano at "Concert Pitch". This is what has been accepted as the pitch to which all musical instruments are to be tuned. In this case, the note A(49) should be set to 440hz. That's 440 cycles per second. If the tuner can't produce this result, he should explain why. It may be necessary to perform more than one tuning to achieve this result. This may be due to long-term neglect, or a move of the piano to a different environment. Again, this isn't unexpected. The tuner will do his utmost to keep the piano in as stable a condition as his art will permit. But, on occasions, conditions caused by weather, and the internal environment may cause the piano to be affected adversely. Again, the tuner should be prepared to advise accordingly. The tuner should be prepared to check the overall performance of the action. This is the mechanism, which turns your key-strokes into sound. If he finds out that there's a problem, he should be prepared to discuss additional maintenance.

Robin Foster MABPT
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