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.