Monthly Archives: March 2016

March Updates

This is the first blog post of the month. We’ve had builders working on an extension for the last few weeks so my internet access has been limited. I intend to update this blog at least once a week, but that isn’t always possible, so sorry for that.

Last week I had two Sheffield customers (both in Norton coincidentally) who needed a new string for their piano. It’s not uncommon for a piano string to break while performing a raise in pitch, and a piano can sometimes break a string during a regular piano tuning as well (both the Norton/Sheffield piano tuning jobs where pitch raises). Sadly, this is just an annoying fact of life and is one of the least enjoyable parts of my job as a piano tuner. As a piano owner you can expect at least one string to break during the pianos life. This is one reason why you should have your piano tuned once every sixth months; so you can avoid the process of having a pitch raise, which also more costly and time-consuming than a regular piano tuning. The extra tightening required to bring it up to concert pitch puts the string at more of a risk, especially if it’s an old piano (although a string breaking on a new piano is not unheard of).

Strings cost around £15 to £20 depending on their size. What I usually do is take the broken string home with me and send it off to be remade (if it’s a bass string). A new string will usually arrive in 3 to 4 days. Treble strings need to be measured with a micrometre and then ordered from a seperate company, which also tend have the strings sent to me within a few days. Luckily, the process of re-stringing takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

 

– Richard, Piano Tuner Sheffield.