Category Archives: Scarborough Piano Tuning

After the Sheffield piano tuning service I always forget? Piano Cleaning

Whenever I’m cheerfully tuning pianos in Sheffield, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Scarborough, Driffield, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Nottingham, Hull and Manchester (not to mentions the little villages and towns I manage on a regular basis) – what do I often neglect to mention? Piano cleaning.

In most instances, such a lapse of memory is forgivable as the customer will bring it up with me as I first arrive at their home. Sometimes, however, If a piano is particularly dusty and they haven’t mentioned it I’ll take the initiative and politely ask the piano tuning customer if they’d like me to give the action, frame, key bed and the cabinet a thorough dusting and remove any cobwebs or excess dirt with a hoover before the piano tuning. If the dust has made its way into the action this will be even more crucial as too much dust can hinder its performance.

I’ve had some delightful results cleaning the keys with my Cory Care Product ‘Key Brite’ solution, which whitens all ivory, plastic or ebony keys with quick and efficient results, leaving them almost as bright and shiny as new. Most customers are very satisfied with the improvement.

If you have a grand piano that needs cleaning (the soundboards of many older grands can be covered in soot from old chimneys) it can be a little more laborious as a special tool is needed to get between the strings in order to clean it – and this tool only cleans a small section of the board at a time. Alas, hoovers are never powerful enough to suck up the dust from the soundboard (that would be much quicker if it were possible). A strong leaf blower might work, but I don’t have such items in stock – such an item wouldn’t fit in my well-stocked Seat.

Dust doesn’t have much of an affect on the sound of the piano, but it can be visually unappealing and its wise to remove the build up before it gets into the mechanism – if it’s bothering you I’m more than happy to discuss cleaning options before or after your piano tuning booking.

Once a piano has passed its final cleaning inspection, a product I sometimes like to use is Cory’s piano polish. Works really well on the finish of most modern uprights and grands

I could write all day about piano cleaning, just as I could with my Sheffield piano tuning blogs. Fortunately I’ll leave you with the essentials. I have an upcoming blog post about ‘Piano Maintenance’ which will give you the piano tuning customer some advice on how to maintain the piano’s aesthetics, its tuning stability and how to extend its lifespan so you can enjoy playing and looking at it for many years to come.

Dear customer, what are your thoughts on this website?

Earlier this morning I had a fruitful discussion with a clever person working in the field of Web Design. I’ve asked them for guidance hoping they can make this website more marketable, more aesthetically-pleasing and more business-like. Many of the pages on this website have not been changed since 2014, though I’m quite happy with the way my details are presented and they all remain relevant and accurate. For me, the design and the layout seem a bit dated and in need of a revamp, but my brain tends not to focus on those things so I’ve procrastinated. I’m more of a pragmatic, “give me the facts” type of person, and given my short attention span I like the writing to be concise and to the point, and I feel I’ve largely succeeded.

What were your impressions when you found this website? Did it improve your knowledge of the piano and the role of the piano tuner and their skills? Was it interesting enough to hold your attention beyond getting my number/email for piano tuning? Or did it just do the job? Perhaps you can let me know when I’m round to tune your piano in Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster, Worksop or any of the localities I travel to farther afield.

Piano tuning can seem dull compared to other topics, but if piano-playing is a big part of your life you would do well to learn what the piano tuner is doing (it might help you feel like you’ve gotten your money’s worth!). If you live in Sheffield like me, we may have shared the same experiences, so my ‘diary’ posts may also be relatable.

Weekly Piano Tuning News Report

As a matter of course, your illustrious Sheffield piano tuner has had another long week of paying careful attention to such frequencies as 440, 156.82, 104.66, and 131.87 for twelve to fourteen hours each day (I must be good at this by now surely?) and tweaking/tuning musical notes to such frequencies to set a piano to equal temperament in a musically pleasing manner. As such I haven’t been able to update my availability page since last Friday, but hasn’t been by choice. I’m not quite as busy next week, and have lots of availability after the 20th of September. Most customers don’t book that far in advance, but I’m happy to work around your schedule. If you’d like a last minute booking it might be easier to arrange that via phone call (07542667040) as slots that were advertised via text can soon be snapped up.

Outside the world of piano tuning, I have still been recording local musicians and singer-songwriters in my spare time as mentioned before. I love sound and capturing combinations of sounds but that can be a distracting and time-consuming hobby. After all my long hours of piano tuning in Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Chesterfield I have been able to afford a few microphones that were once outside of my budget. I may use this piano tuning blog to link some of my recordings, recently using a Neumann u87 and a vintage ribbon microphone in the future. Moving them around the room and closer or further away from the source is what I love doing at the moment, trying to master the art of recording is something I will be pursue for many years.

Pianoversary

This month marks the 10 year anniversary of my piano tuning “career”, when I enrolled on my piano tuning and repair course back in August 2011.

What made me decide to become a piano tuner? Long, long ago back I was a youth not long out of school, deciding what I wanted to do as a job, I was watching my own piano being tuned and serviced by another Sheffield piano tuner. I was interested in his technique and had questions about how he learned such a unique skill. I knew I wasn’t the archetypal piano man, but I’d always had a good ear for music and the moving mechanical parts interested me. At the time I wasn’t doing very much apart from reading books and listening to music, but the clock was ticking and I knew I should learn a profitable skill as soon as possible to avoid drifting. I thought piano tuning be a nice way to earn a comfortable living doing something moderately enjoyable and that not too many other people could do.

Was becoming a piano tuner a good decision? It depends on the day you ask me. The work itself is rewarding, but building a clientele in a declining industry has been a long, difficult slog and the battle is not yet won. Some weeks the money is very good, but suddenly there’s a drop off and it’s not always easy to predict when and why. I think it would have been a more satisfying job in the 1980s or earlier when pianos were ubiquitous and taken more seriously. However, there are signs of a piano revival which is nice to see.

What I hadn’t anticipated was how expensive piano parts would be to have in stock. I generally like to have back up action parts with me to avoid any second visits to the customers home and have been successful in this regard. But the sheer number of felts, hammers, springs, flanges, screws, glues, files, bridle tapes, strings, jacks, wippens, key coverings that I need to have in the car has taken years to build up. Unfortunately there isn’t an ‘industry standard’ for each part, as each piano is a different size and many are built in different countries and by different brands.

Commission for piano sales

While I’m primarily a Sheffield piano tuner, I occasionally sell pianos (usually ones in the £500 – £1000 range – perfect for upgrades). I’m particularly drawn to ‘Chappell’ and ‘Challen’ pianos from the early to mid 20th century, as they tend to age significantly well and keep their tone. In an ideal world I would have a workshop set up to do repairs on both the action as well as more aesthetic improvements (polishing and refinishing pianos), but I live in a small flat without a garage so this isn’t practical at present.

Sometimes I receive an enquiry from someone who wishes to sell a piano, but would like to book a piano tuner beforehand. This is an excellent idea as it allows me to look over the action/mechanism and give it a worthy assessment. Minor TLC can be performed if the customer is pushed for time, and more extensive repairs can be done (my fee for repairs is £20 per hour).

If you would like me to use my contacts in the piano trade to speed up your sale, I charge a commission of 10-20% of the sale (depending on the value of the piano). I am often in contact with people who wish to upgrade their piano and have got in the habit of saving their details for when the perfect piano comes along.

The last time I did significant restoration work before selling a piano (i.e. not the usual repair work undertaken in a customer’s home) was when I still lived with my parents in 2012. They had the room for me to set up a mini workshop and on my time off I would take in free pianos found on Freecycle and restore them to the best of my ability. It was a great learning experience coinciding with my time studying piano tuning and repairs at college, away from Sheffield. I would recommend every aspiring piano tuner and tech to do this while learning their trade, nothing quite compares to throwing yourself in at the deep end this way. This was before I had gathered a sizeable set of tools, so jobs such as re-stringing were especially challenging, forcing me to think outside the box and use household items such as screwdrivers to make a neat coil. Once you have been a piano tuner for several years, you will become quicker at your job, partly through experience and partly due to the useful piano tools that are able to be purchased on the market today.

Something that may be of interest to my Scarborough piano tuning customers

Here’s a quick update for my customers in the Scarborough region, or anyone looking for a new Scarborough piano tuner. I will be in your area much more frequently tuning and servicing pianos in people’s homes, churches and other venues. I might even enjoy a quick walk on the beach if I get a lunch break.

The ghastly nature of the pandemic drastically limited my work and my willingness to travel last year. Things are almost back to normal, albeit with careful health and safety procedures in place (regular hand washing and social distancing, and I will also wear a mask on request).

Many residents of Scarborough and Whitby are looking for a piano tuner who is young and highly motivated and willing to go that extra mile. That’s me (except for the young part). I’m always happy to tune ANY piano and value all my customers equally. All done at a reasonable cost.

I greatly look forward to seeing my piano tuning business bounce back to how it was at its zenith (2018 – early 2020).

Robert Jenrick confirms booking a piano tuner is allowed under new lockdown rukes

Concerned about the legality of booking a piano tuner or other tradesperson while you have a little bit of time off? You shouldn’t be. Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State For Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed that booking tradespeople (plumbers, electricians and… yes, Sheffield piano tuners) is allowed under the new lockdown rules. What a relief.

I’m operating under regular hours in the Sheffield and South Yorkshire region. The only port of call I won’t be able to manage on my various journeys will be the Scarborough and North Yorkshire piano tuning base I have developed since 2015… at least for another two weeks. It’s more ethically agreeable to wait until I have a larger number of enquires from that region to reduce the number of visitations in the current climate.

– Richard, Piano Tuner Sheffield.

Brief window of opportunity for North Yorkshire Customers

I’ve only been making very sporadic trips to Scarborough since March, due to a sudden drop in demand. If you are in Scarborough or a nearby area there’s a brief window of opportunity to have your piano tuned next week. I have an available slot left for 2 PM. If you’re interested, please contact me to book:

07542667040

richard@pianotunersheffield.co.uk

 

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

-Richard Lidster, Sheffield Piano Tuner.

How is the Sheffield piano tuner dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic?

Many people are asking how the Sheffield piano tuner is coping with the pandemic and what his available hours are for piano tuning.

Business hours are back to how they were during the lockdown, but he is taking more precautions to avoid catching the virus and potentially spreading it to others (being particularly mindful of the elderly occupants at his  Sheffield residence). Here are a few steps he is undertaking to ensure everyone stays safe:

  1. Before the piano tuning , he will politely ask the customer to clean the keys (rub in vertical motions to prevent dirt getting down the sides) with an antibacterial wipe.
  2. He will take care to maintain social distancing during every visit.
  3. Bookings are arranged geographically, so that one day will be for Sheffield piano tuning, one for Leeds, one for Hull, etc (piano tuning in 2020 requires wide travel)
  4. For customers who are particularly anxious, masks are kept in the car to be worn on request.

These steps will be rigorously followed for the foreseeable future. He is very appreciative of anyone who books a piano tuning during this difficult and uncertain time. If anything changes this website and blog will be updated immediately.