Piano Tuning Portland

HI, my name is Ben Wasson. I am a piano tuner and technician with 8 years of full time piano repair experience. My business is called Stay Tuned. I focus on piano tuning, repair and a reconditioning service that specializes in all levels of pianos. From your 100 year old upright to a brand new Yamaha C7 Grand, I can you rediscover the joy in your instrument that may have been lost.My services primarily are in Portland Oregon, but I do travel to SW Washington, Salem, Sandy, Forest Grove and occasionally the Oregon Coast. I am frequently in Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Gresham, Lake Oswego, Clackamas and all areas of Portland Metro. See you soon!

The trapwork and is the assemblage of levers, dowels and springs that connect the pedals to the action. The damper system is the mechanical part of the piano that stops the motion of the strings and is controlled by the keys and pedal system. Incorrect pedaling techniques may be related to poor regulation of the trapwork or damper system. Fine adjustment is essential here if you are to achieve the nuances of pedaling.Regulation is the adjustment of the mechanical aspects of the piano to compensate for the effects of wear, the compacting and settling of cloth, felt and buckskin, as well as dimensional changes in wood and wool parts due to changes in humidity and use. The three systems involved in regulation are the action, trap-work and damper system.

Justin Rose Piano Service. Piano tuning, repair, regulation, assessments, humidity control systems and sales. Providing service for all makes and models of grand piano and upright piano in homes, schools, churches and performance venues.If your piano has gone without tuning for an extended period of time, its pitch may have dropped well below standard pitch at which it was designed to perform. It may require a procedure called a “pitch raise”or “pitch correction”. This is a necessary procedure before a fine tuning can be achieved, for the following reason. When the tension of each string is raised back up to pitch, the additional load on the piano’s structure causes the pitch of the previously adjusted strings to change. The only way to achieve a fine, accurate tuning on a piano is to have the tension of all the strings so close to proper pitch that altering one string will not affect the others. Therefore, a piano must be already fairly close to standard pitch to be finely tuned.

Tuning is the adjustment of all of the pianos 230 plus strings to standard pitch, A-440 (the A above middle C vibrates at 440 cycles per second). Your piano is designed to sound its best when tuned to A-440. Almost all pianos today are tuned using equal temperament tuning, unless called for otherwise. Maintaining your piano at standard pitch allows you to play along with other instruments which are designed to this same standard. It also is important that a piano be at standard pitch to assist in ear training.

In the short term, leather and felt compact, affecting the adjustment (regulation) of the parts. The action becomes uneven and less responsive and the piano’s tone loses dynamic range. Squeaks and rattles may develop. Routine maintenance, such as hammer filing, regulation, voicing and tuning will help correct these problems and keep the piano in top condition.A piano may require periodic voicing. This work can be included as part of the regulation procedure or done independently of regulation work. However, the process of regulation will invariably affect the tone or ‘voice’ of the piano. The process of voicing alone can adjust the relative brilliance of a piano and provide an even gradation of volume and tone over the entire range of the keyboard. Voicing procedures may involve reshaping the hammers, the use of needles on the hammer felt and/ or the application of special softeners or hardeners in order to produce the best sound possible. It should be noted that voicing can only be accomplished after the piano has been recently fine tuned.

Piano care, tuning, and maintenance doesn’t have to be complicated. Answers to the following questions will help you gain a better understanding of your piano and its care. Please contact me if you have any further questions about your piano or my services.Swelling and shrinking of the piano’s soundboard is the most immediate and noticeable effect of humidity change. The soundboard, a sheet of wood approximately 3/8″ thick, is made with a slightly crowned shape. The strings pass over the soundboard and are connected to it by a wooden piece called a bridge. The upward crown of the soundboard presses the bridge tightly against the strings.Tuning the piano to anything other than the international standard of A-440 is seldom appropriate. However, if a very old piano has been allowed to remain appreciably below pitch for a long time, some strings may break if the piano is restored to A-440. This will also be an unstable tuning due to the sudden, large increase of tensile force placed upon the structure. This may be justification for tuning a piano to a lower frequency but is not desirable. Conversely, lowering the pitch far below A-440 will also result in significant adjustments made to the tension of every string, resulting in an unstable tuning. It is much more reliable to bring the piano up to standard pitch and then proceed with fine tuning.The recommended minimum for a household piano getting moderate use is tuning once a year. However, there are several factors that may necessitate more frequent tuning; the environment, the mechanical condition of the piano, frequency of use and performance requirements. Variations in the relative humidity is generally the most important criteria in determining how often a piano needs to be tuned. Extreme changes in humidity levels, as occur in the North East, can drastically affect tuning stability. The pianos soundboard, upon which the strings are attached via the bridge, is 3/8″ spruce wood. The soundboard will expand and contract with seasonal changes in temperature and humidity and the string tension will fluctuate accordingly. You can reduce the severity of these climatic effects by placing your piano in the room, so that it is away from windows or doors that are opened regularly. Avoid heating and air conditioning vents, fireplaces and areas receiving direct sunlight. Because of these seasonal variations, many piano owners opt for tuning their pianos twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. An excellent option for controlling tuning stability and protecting your piano from the harmful affects of excess humidity, is to install a humidity control system inside the piano. (See my detailed answer on this subject below.)After extended or heavy use, action parts become severely worn. Leather and felt wear thin, keys become wobbly, hammer felt becomes too thin to produce good tone and the action becomes noisy. Regulation adjustments reach their limit. In addition, piano strings may begin breaking and the copper windings of the bass strings lose resonance. Decades of exposure to seasonal changes can cause the wood of the soundboard, bridges and pinblock to weaken. This causes loose tuning pins, poor tuning stability and further loss of tone.Keeping the humidity level around your piano as constant as possible will help it stay in tune longer, as well as slow damage such as soundboard cracks, loose tuning pins and glue joint failures. The first and simplest precaution you can take is to position your piano away from areas where it would be exposed to extremes of temperate and humidity such as heating and cooling vents, stoves, doors and windows. Direct sunlight is especially damaging. If your home is not well insulated, an interior wall is preferable to an outside wall.

Most pianos can be played for many years without significant reconditioning or major repairs. However, the touch, tone and appearance will continually decline with age. When regular maintenance such as cleaning, regulating, voicing and tuning no longer provide satisfactory performance, a piano may require reconditioning or rebuilding. Exactly when a piano needs reconditioning or rebuilding depends upon its original quality, the climate, usage and performance requirements.

Frequency of use will also determine a pianos ability to stand in tune. Pianos in performance venues or that are used for teaching and serious practice will all need more frequent tuning and service.Complete rebuilding involves the pianos entire structure, including soundboard, bridges, pinblock and strings, as well as the action, keyboard and case refinishing.

During periods of low relative humidity the soundboard shrinks, reducing crown and decreasing pressure against the strings. The pitch drops, again with the greatest effect noticeable in the center of the keyboard. When relative humidity returns to its previous level, the average pitch of all the strings will return to normal, although the exact pitch of individual strings will be slightly changed from their original settings. Thus, a piano will only stay in tune as long as the relative humidity in the air surrounding the soundboard remains constant. Extreme humidity changes require making greater changes in string tension to bring the piano into tune. This upsets the equilibrium between the string tension and the piano frame and tuning stability is compromised.Pianos with a compromised pin-block (the pin-block is a block of hardwood laminate that holds the tuning pins) can also be a source of tuning instability. In some cases, the pin-block must be repaired or replaced. Cracked bridges are also a source of tuning instability and may need repair. These conditions usually occur in old or neglected pianos. The age and mechanical condition of the piano is also an important factor in how frequently a piano needs to be tuned. For new pianos, most manufactures recommend four tunings in the first year to compensate for the elasticity of new piano wire. The action is the mechanical part of the piano that transfers the motion of the fingers on the keys to the hammers that strike the strings. Because it is comprised of thousands of working parts, the action requires adjustment to critical tolerances to properly respond to a pianist’s performance. And because the piano’s action will go out of adjustment slowly over time, you may not notice accumulating sluggishness or unevenness as it occurs. No amount of practice will compensate for a poorly maintained action. Poor legato touch, chord playing where all the notes of the chord don’t speak clearly, a gradual loss of subtlety in phrasing and an inability to execute quick passages or note repetitions evenly, may be the fault of the piano – not the pianist. Smooth, even playing is as much a function of a well maintained action as a well-practice pianist.As the moisture level in the soundboard increases during periods of high relative humidity, the crown expands and pushes the bridge harder against the strings. The strings are stretched tighter and the piano’s pitch rises. Because this increase in crown is greater in the center of the soundboard than at the edges, the pitch rises more in the middle octaves than in the bass or treble registers.

Repair and restoration costs are the next pieces to keep in mind before picking up the bargain piano you have your eyes set on, as these costs can be the most expensive.There are more than a few reasons that these pianos are often left in homes when they are sold and you can find free pianos abound on the internet. Below we will go over the top reasons you should think twice before undertaking the inconvenience of acquiring a free/cheap piano. The piano’s action is made up of thousands of moving parts. A one-hundred-year-old action will almost always feature heavily string cut hammers, broken parts, or at least will be heavily out of regulation. The vast majority of old upright pianos have not been taken care of over the years, this can become very apparent when attempting to play or work on one. Keys may be sticking due to broken parts, verdigris, or items and grime that have fallen under or into the action. The complexity of any piano’s action means that there is a litany of issues that can manifest within it. Antiquated designs can make servicing difficult and often these designs are antiqued for a reason. For example, there are a number of types of flanges that were utilized ‘back in the day’ that are no longer used by any company. Although a number of companies such as Steinway & Sons and Mason & Hamlin put out some of their finest work during this period, a large number of piano builders flooded the market with hastily assembled or badly engineered upright/vertical instruments to meet the high market demand. Well over 300 piano makers were in simultaneous operation within the United States alone. Due to this, hundreds of thousands of mass-produced upright pianos were built, flooding the market. Even if full rebuilds were completed (costing north of $10,000.00) the result of restoring these old pianos would not be more than average. Churned out of factories in exceedingly high numbers, the average upright was never a concert-level piano, to begin with.It is worth noting that there ARE rare cases in which you can come across a free or cheap piano that is indeed a great bargain that is already in very fine condition or worth the work. It is often advised that you have a pre-owned car checked out by a qualified mechanic. To keep the car analogy alive, this transfers over to a piano as well. It is wise to consult with a qualified piano technician before making a purchase decision. The relatively low investment of having a technician check out a piano before you spend the money to move it into your house and have it tuned, can save you money and heartache in the end.

There are a number of hidden costs that might not be apparent when it comes to a free or cheap one-hundred-year-old upright or even a grand. The first is moving. Old, full-size upright pianos can weigh nearly 700 lbs. and are harder to move than a grand. Awkward in size and weight, these instruments require a qualified piano moving team to safely remove, transport, and set up the piano at its new home. Asking a couple of buddies to help you move it will not suffice, and likely will cause more damage to the piano and potential injury to those attempting to move it.Keep in mind, this is likely the best-case scenario. Moving a fully functional piano from one location to another, for a few hundred dollars. Next, we’ll get into the additional costs of tuning and repairs.

Average production values combined with inherent limitations within the upright piano design can make the cost and resources needed to restore one, not worth the effort.

The moment a piano is completed, it is immediately put under tremendous stress. When pulled up to pitch, the strings exert tens of thousands of pounds of string tension. This is absorbed by the cast iron plate, the pinblock, and the piano’s cabinet. More than likely, an old upright piano was kept in an environment where the humidity level was not ideal. Swings in humidity are one of the primary factors when it comes to the wear and tear placed on a piano. The tuning pin holes can become enlarged, compromising tuning stability. Over time, tension combined with swings in humidity can cause the pinblock to fail and other structural issues can become apparent.

A good comparison would be the restoration of vintage automobiles. If it cost the exact same amount in terms of work and funds to restore a beat-up Ford Pinto or a classic Corvette, which one would take priority? The same can be said for pianos. A piano does not accrue ‘antique value’ in the normal sense of the term. A piano’s value comes almost solely from its function as a musical instrument. (The exception usually being very ornate art case pianos.) A one-hundred-year-old upright’s musical and mechanical value is quite low, especially when compared to the fine golden age grand pianos produced around the same period.Tuning fees usually range between $90 and $150 dollars depending on the tuner/piano technician you hire. A piano that has not been tuned for a long time may require a pitch raise. This requires the tuner to go through the piano more than once, increasing the cost. Tuning obviously falls under basic maintenance and is something that any piano owner should keep up on.

Unfortunately, we have often found that an old piano that has not been properly maintained over the years may not be tunable without a serious amount of repair/restoration work.The piano’s soundboard may crack and come loose from its supporting ribs, causing unwanted vibrations and annoying buzzing. The soundboard bridges which transmit the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard, may fail. When the bridge cap cracks it can cause the bridge pin to shift and become loose, leading to a loss of proper string termination, and tuning instability.

Another primary issue is the initial build quality of the piano. The vast majority of these old uprights were built during the pre-WWII era. The piano was seen as THE primary home entertainment system. Of course Tessa loves playing the piano. She also has fun with the ukulele. For non-musical outlets, she takes part in Krav Maga, rock climbing, and the occasional running event. But her greatest joy is her doggie friend, Oscar, the inspiration for her logo design and business name. There are lots of pianos out there, and Underdog will make sure you get the right instrument for you. You wouldn’t buy a car without your mechanic looking at it first, would you?Oscar is Tessa’s beloved first dog. Before Tessa started at the North Bennet Street School, she was an apprentice at a shop in the Boston area. Oscar accompanied her to the shop, so he witnessed the beginnings of her career. He was also a stalwart companion throughout Tessa’s education at NBSS. It was only fitting that he earned a spot in Underdog’s brand. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s piano colored!

When it comes to temperature and humidity, what pianos crave more than anything is consistency. So, the fickle New England weather can be really tough on them! Luckily, there are climate control systems made specifically for pianos (made by Dampp-Chaser).Tessa received a BA in Music from Tulane University in 2015. She was first exposed to piano work while watching her parents’ technician tune their piano. During her senior year of college, she shadowed a technician in New Orleans, watching him tune in bars and historic sites like Preservation Hall, where he let Tessa turn her first tuning pin. After graduating, Tessa moved to Boston and apprenticed with a technician who showed her the basics of piano repair and regulation. Then, in 2016, she began attending the North Bennet Street School for Piano Technology.

Sometimes, your piano needs some extra work to make it the best little piano it could ever be. Time packs a punch to these instruments! Underdog can help get your piano back up to where it was performing in its younger years with this service.A piano is more like a family member than a piece of furniture. With that in mind, Underdog Pianos will take care of your piano like family, whether it’s your infant niece, your athletic teenage cousin, or your rickety great, great grandfather. Regardless of brand, style or age, almost any piano can be improved in some way, and I strive to do that. If the piano is important to you, it’s important to me.

Having been a musician all their life, Britney graduated with a BM of Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2010. Outside of school they worked alongside the multi-talented Minna Choi at Magik*Magik Orchestra (magikmagik.com) as an arranger and production manager and having written orchestra arrangements for Third Eye Blind, The Lonely Forest, BirdCall, Portland based Melegari Quartet, producer Narada Michael Walden in collaboration with the Oakland Symphony, City Church of San Francisco and many more. Now back in Portland, they contracts musicians, writes arrangements and transcriptions for various artists and organizations around town. When they’re not fixing pianos, you can typically find them making art and jewlery from old piano parts!Piano curiosity began at the age of 8, however piano technician work began in 2013 at Classic Pianos. Britney studied under various piano technicians and tuners to regulate, repair, clean and tune hundreds of pianos. Within three years they had become one of their most qualified technicians servicing both in the store and in client’s homes. In 2017 Britney was contracted with the historic Piano School of Technology for the Blind in Vancouver, Washington as they sadly worked to shut their doors. Afterward, Britney was hired to help develop and co-run the piano rebuilding shop at Michelle’s Pianos. They currently runs their own shop and enjoys tuning in many homes around the Portland and Vancouver Metro areas including for various teaching and music studios. “Britney, Thank you so very much! I am so completely impressed and grateful that you could restore my family piano so beautifully! Harry and I appreciate your months of hard effort and careful work to do this amazing thing. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” -Harry and Sally Buerer, Gulbranson grand rebuild 2022 Ever itching to have their hands on a piano, Britney plays in the pop punk band Distorted Times and as well as working on their own solo projects and collaborations. They has been studying and teaching martial arts at the Academy of Modern Martial Arts in Lake Oswego, OR for a total of 23 years, earning two separate black belts during their time there. They also enjoy putzin around their garden, spending as much time as they can tiring out her young pup, and usually has their head deep in a good book with a cat in their lap.

Tuning is the correction of the pitch of each note by gently re-tightening metal pins called tuning pins around which the strings are wound, using a tool called a tuning hammer.

The word “tuning” normally refers to all of the technical maintenance tasks required for a piano. These jobs are divided into the following three broad classifications.Voicing involves balancing the volume, tone, and overall sound of the piano by adjusting the hardness of the hammer felts by pricking them with needles using a tool called a picker.

A piano is an instrument, first and foremost – it’s not just decorative and valuable! As such, it’s clear that you’d want your piano to be in a tuned condition, ready to play at a moment’s notice. We offer a team of local piano tuners to our community, ensuring that their pianos are playing beautifully at all times.We offer a piano repair service that can give you the restorative power needed to get your instrument back into the optimal condition. We are capable of repairing any kind of issues that arise, and we offer a piano maintenance service on top of that, which means you can avoid piano repair problems in the first place.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have to transport a piano from one property to another, you’re surely already aware of how challenging this could be. A piano is big, heavy, and awkwardly shaped, after all. Even so, with our piano moving service, you can rest easy. We use specialist equipment and our deep wells of knowledge to make piano moving straightforward. “Piano Tuning Portland is the service I use any time I need to store or move my piano and they’ve always performed to my expectations. I really believe that this service is the best around, and I can’t see myself going anywhere else Storing a piano might prove to be more difficult than you’d imagine. They require a temperature controlled environment where security is of the foremost importance. With our piano storage facilities, you can feel certain that your piano will get all of that, and everything else that it needs.

There’s something special about musical instruments, and pianos specifically. A piano is a wonderful way to express yourself, as a vehicle for your creative talents, and as such, it’s hardly a surprise that these often end up becoming treasured family possessions and heirlooms. There’s plenty of upside to owning a piano then, certainly, but there are difficulties present as well. They can be hard to keep tuned and in a good condition, and they are difficult to store and transport, should the need ever arise. For that reason, and others, it’s a good idea to bring in a professional piano service provider, a team that can cover all of these needs. A reputable piano service provider not only knows how to keep a piano playing beautifully, but can even restore and repair the piano as well. As you might have guessed by this point, we believe that we provide the premier piano services in the area – and we’d be delighted to help you with any service needs you might have. There may be several reasons a piano might not stay in tune, some of which we’ve discussed already on this page. Big fluctuations in temperature and humidity levels are usually the culprit when it comes to pianos not staying in tune. If your piano has been tuned but seems to quickly fall out of tune, it may be that you need to position the instrument in a different place in your residence. If the piano is too close to windows that allow humidity or temperature variations, you may need to move it away from the windows, or install a dehumidifier to keep the humidity in the room at an appropriate level. If you have a strong heat source nearby such as a wood stove, it also may need to be moved away from the stove. There are a broad range of situations where a piano appraisal service is a must. Over the years, we’ve helped our customers with piano appraisals for sales, purchases, insurance evaluations, estate tax and planning matters, and all sorts else. If you want to make sure that you have a thorough understanding of your piano’s value, this is a service you can’t do without.

“I wanted to teach my son how to play piano and so we needed to get our piano tuned (after a very long time!). We brought Piano Tuning Portland in to help, and they were so great – they even gave us some maintenance tips for the future.”As I already mentioned, a piano should stay in tune unless there are significant changes to the atmospheric conditions in the area. What that typically means is that most customers in the Portland area, or surrounding areas get their piano tuned twice per year. Our most busy times are right after the heavy rains of winter, usually late spring, and again right after the heat of summer, usually late fall.“I have been going with Piano Tuning Portland for a while now and they have been pretty great. They get tuning right every time, and I’m always pleased with the amount they charge me. Money well spent”We’re committed to delivering a robust and comprehensive range of piano services to our customers in both residential and commercial properties – and we’re yet to experience a situation where we’re incapable of providing the necessary service intervention. In the past, we’ve helped our customers with piano tuning service, piano repair services, piano appraisal, piano storage, and any other brand of piano service that you could think of. Notably, we are willing and able to work with pianos of every type and manufacturer, so there’s no situation we can’t get involved in. If you have lingering doubts about our service coverage, you can always reach out to our customer service team for clarity.

One of the most common myths about pianos falling out of tune is that somehow playing them is the cause of the problem. That is not correct! Usually, unless someone is striking the piano keys with very excessive force, a daily playing by adults and children will not cause a piano to lose its tune. In fact one of the biggest reasons that a piano does lose its tune is due to changes in the atmosphere. Humidity is typically the most common cause of a piano going out of tune, and if you’re familiar with Portland weather, you know that there is a very humid season and a very dry season, both of which affect the tuning of the piano.For those people whose piano has declined in condition, hope isn’t lost. Even the most seriously declining pianos might still be salvageable with the help of a piano restoration service. We are experts at piano refurbishing, and confident that we grapple with any level of decay present to restore optimal functionality and appearance.

Who ever thought that getting your piano to sound great would be such a challenge? It really doesn’t have to be, and we’re here to help. We know that turning common instruments like guitars, ukuleles, violins and cellos is usually an easy process using a tool designed specifically for the job, and that is a great thing! It makes playing stringed instruments easy and convenient, and really fun! Almost any time a musician picks up an instrument that needs to be tuned before a practice session, or a performance, or a rehearsal it’s usually a really easy thing to do.

At Piano Tuning Portland, we’ve forged a reputation as the Portland, Oregon area’s leading piano tuner and repair service – and we couldn’t be any prouder of the results that we’ve conjured up throughout the time we’ve been in this line of work. Our goal has always been to provide first class piano services – and complete customer satisfaction, along with it – to our customers in the area, regardless of the exact nature of the situation that we’re dealing with. We have assembled a team of highly trained and deeply experienced piano tuners and piano repair specialists. These individuals are passionate about pianos, and we know they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that you get the optimal outcome. But their service excellence is only part of the reason that you ought to use our services. Our affordable pricing structures also set us apart as the number one option in the area – as it means we’re giving our customers a perfect blend of value and quality.These pianos may require multiple tunings to achieve the desired sounds, including tuning twice during the first session. We can make sure that your piano sounds good through pitch raising. This process includes tuning the piano once to restore standard tension to the steel strings, putting tension on the system, then returning and tuning the piano again so that no damage is caused to the instrument. If you’ve tried these tactics already and are having problems with tuning still, you may need to contact a piano repair technician. A piano has a piece called a tuning pin block, and this tool is used to create friction in the piano tuning pegs so that the pegs can be turned while keeping strong tension on the piano wire. If the tuning pin block’s hole that the pin sits in ceases to create the friction needed to hold the wire at the correct tension, tuning the wire will end up doing no good. Fortunately replacing the tuning pin block for strings that won’t stay in tune is typically a relatively easy job for a piano repair technician, and there are several qualified ones in our area that we would be happy to refer you to. But pianos are a bit more tricky. One of the best things about a piano is that it doesn’t need to be tuned nearly as frequently! But getting them into tune in the first place can be intimidating and really expensive! That’s why we’re here to help. We’re professional piano tuners, with fundamental experience in getting any piano sounding great. We service the entire Portland Metro area, from Vancouver to Salem, from Gresham to Forest Grove. Please give us a call or fill out the form for a speedy quote specific for your situation.Another interesting thing that happens to any stringed instrument that starts to go out of tune is called beating. This is a strange and uncomfortable sound that can happen when you play notes that are close together in frequency, but that are off just a small amount, and it causes a dissonant beating sound, that can vary in intensity depending on how far out of tune the instrument is. There is only one way to remedy the beating sound, by getting the piano tuned so that the frequencies stop colliding and causing the dissonant sound.

Pianos that haven’t been tuned in many years can have significant problems in getting them back into tune. We understand that an older piano is usually a family heirloom and treasured by many people in the family. That’s why we will do our best to bring the piano into tune. If you have a very old piano that hasn’t been tuned for a long time, please make sure to let our technicians knows.

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Gracey Piano Services was started in 2021 by Ryan Gracey after nearly 10 years of working full-time as a piano technician in the Portland area. In that time he averaged about 1000 in home piano tuning, cleaning and repair appointments per year. He decided that by starting his own business he would be able to spend more time on quality work on each piano while charging a reasonable rate. He is grateful to provide a valuable service to the community and he looks forward to meeting you soon!

Black and White Piano Tuning in Vancouver offers tuning, pitch raising, hammer shaping, pedal adjustments, and other repairs and maintenance services. The owner of Black and White Piano Tuning, Mac Potts, was born with perfect pitch, which serves as an excellent advantage in the piano tuning business. After playing piano his whole life, Mac also learned regulation quickly. Mac is also a partner at Piano Preservation and Consignment Company, which allows his clients access to a range of pianos from spinets to grand pianos. All piano sale prices include an in-home tuning session sometime between six and 12 months after its purchase. Sterling Piano Tuning in West Linn is a brother-and-sister team that offers services like piano tuning, repairs, and cleaning. The business’s piano technician, Joseph Sterling Forster, has more than 10 years of experience in the industry. He regularly tunes pianos for private residences, high schools, colleges, and churches throughout the Portland area. Joseph offers music lessons in piano, guitar, and the recorder. Sterling Piano Tuning has different hourly rates for tuning, cleaning, and repair work posted on its website. Evergreen Restoration of Molalla specializes in piano tuning, maintenance, repair, restoration, and refinishing. Maintenance services the business offers include action regulation, voicing, and cleaning. Evergreen Restoration installs Dampp-Chaser climate control systems to help instruments cope with changing humidity levels. The company offers piano recycling services as well as rental pianos for those who aren’t yet sure if they are ready to buy a piano.Andante Piano Works is the business of Laura Walker, a full-time piano technician in Vancouver. Laura attended the Emil Fries School of Piano Tuning and Technology where she received comprehensive training in aural piano tuning, repair, action regulation, rebuilding, and voicing. Andante Piano Works services both upright and grand pianos. Laura serves as the piano technician for Clark College and has tuned for artists such as Beirut, Vanessa Carlton, and Stevie Wonder. Andante Piano Works offers piano cleaning and reconditioning services to get an instrument playing and looking its best. Other services include piano appraisals and the setup, training, and repair of Yamaha Disklavier player piano systems.Mark Mention is a piano technician, photographer, and philanthropist in Portland. He completed a comprehensive two-year piano technology program at North Bennet Street School in Boston and received the school’s highest level of certification possible. Mark has more than 30 years of hands-on experience in piano tuning, repair, and rebuilding. He also offers piano appraisals and condition analysis reports. Mark Mention is the founder of a charity organization called The Piano Santa Foundation, which has helped over 100 students gain access to pianos, teachers, and performance opportunities since its inception in the early 1990s.Artisan Piano Services in Portland, Oregon, specializes in piano tuning, repairs, and cleaning. Founded in 2004, they continue to provide complete piano restoration services for all brands and units. The company offers professional appraisals and evaluations for new and vintage pianos in the Greater Portland area. Whether for teachers, students, or families with new or custom pianos, Artisan Piano Services provides piano education and training for those that want to become well-versed technicians. John Gilmore is a professional musician and trained piano technician in Portland. John has been serving Portland since 1992 and offers services such as tuning, regulation, professional cleaning, and repair services such as fixing “sticky keys” and replacing broken strings. In addition to these services, John offers pre-purchase inspections to help clients buy with confidence. Customers can purchase piano benches, lights, covers, and other piano accessories through John, often for lower prices than the typical retail store can offer. Some piano tuners are certified as Registered Piano Technicians (RPTs) with the Piano Technicians Guild. This is a worldwide organization that requires technicians to pass a written exam and a field test to meet guild standards before earning certification as an RPT. There is no governing body that regulates the piano tuning or repair industry, so some people rely on the designation of RPT as a standard. However, many unregistered piano tuners have extensive piano tuning experience and are just as skilled as those who hold the title of RPT. When looking to hire a piano tuner, be sure to research their background, verify they have experience working with your make of piano, and verify that they have positive customer reviews. It’s also wise to look for a piano tuning professional who has basic business liability insurance, especially if your piano is an investment piece. Check out our tips for smart hiring for more information.Older or more neglected pianos may require more extensive repairs and refinements before tuning, which will make the overall cost higher than for a standard tuning. Also, the more out of tune a piano, the more the tuning might cost.

Pianos are delicate instruments that need consistent maintenance for optimal performance. Being made of wood and felt, your piano is subject to swelling and contraction as the seasons and climates change from hot to cold or wet to dry. Extreme temperature changes affect the pitch, tone and action response of your instrument, explains the Piano Technicians Guild, which is why upkeep is so important. Fortunately, skilled piano technicians are able to provide expert piano tuning and repairs to keep your instrument pitch perfect. The national average cost for piano tuning ranges between $100 and $120, although pricing can be higher or lower depending on your piano and other variables. A frequently played piano requires basic tuning every few months, while a lightly played piano may be able to go a year without tuning. But if you have invested in a quality piano for your home (or place of worship or business), it’s a good rule of thumb to have it regularly tuned by a professional per the piano manufacturer’s recommendations.Some piano tuners charge a flat rate for their services; for example, Piano Doctor of McKinney, Texas, charges an average of $85 for a standard piano tuning. Other technicians charge by the hour. The cost may include certain small repairs, but most piano repairs cost extra. As a general rule, more expensive piano tuners typically charge a flat rate that includes small repairs, while less expensive pros might charge extra for additional services such as unsticking sticky keys, installing new strings or other tasks.

New or recently restrung pianos require tuning more frequently than older pianos because the new strings are stretching. It’s a good idea to tune a new piano three or four times in its first year to help the strings settle. However, if you have a new piano in your home or have recently moved your piano, experts recommend you wait at least three months before having it tuned to allow the piano to adjust to the new environment.

If your piano is in a humid area inside your house, it could lose its tuning more quickly. It’s best to keep your piano away from windows, exterior walls, or heating sources such as vents, fireplaces and registers. In addition, constant shifts in humidity can lead to cracking or distortion in the soundboards, while too much moisture can cause string rust. The Piano Technicians Guild recommends using an air conditioner during hot, humid months or using humidifiers and dehumidifiers as your climate requires.

Don’t waste your money getting a piano tuned until it’s been in its current location for three months. Temperature and humidity changes during a move can unsettle a piano and require more work than if you let it settle down in its new location before bringing in a piano tuning pro.

Millions of people ask Thumbtack for help with their projects every year. We track the estimates they get from local professionals, conduct our own research and then we share those prices with you. The prices reflected in the article above are for informational purposes only and are subject to change at any time. Contact a professional near you to receive a personalized cost estimate for your project.By following a few simple preventive maintenance tips, you can reduce tuning costs, improve playing sound and extend your piano’s life. The Piano Technicians Guild recommends positioning your piano away from doors or windows that you leave open regularly. Take care to place your piano away from heating or air conditioning vents. Fireplaces and direct sunlight can also affect the inner workings of your piano. The Piano Technicians Guild suggests avoiding overly wet or dry conditions, as too much moisture can make the piano pitch sharp, while overly dry conditions can cause the piano’s pitch to go flat as well as causing the glue joints to weaken in the soundboard. The Piano Technicians Guild recommends maintaining a consistent temperature around 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 42 percent relative humidity.

According to the the Piano Technicians Guild, piano tuning is the adjustment of the piano’s tuning pins so that all the strings have the proper tension (pitch) to produce the correct-sounding musical intervals. To tune a piano, technicians adjust the tension of each of the piano’s strings until they are in the standard tuning of A440, which means that the A above middle C vibrates at 440 cycles per second. Waiting too long between tunings puts a piano at risk of losing its pitch. If a piano has dropped pitch, the pitch must be raised before it can be tuned. Average costs for a piano tuner depend on where you live, what kind of piano you own, whether the piano has broken strings or needs other repairs, how well your piano has been maintained, and the age of the piano. Older pianos are often more delicate and may require extra time and care to accurately fine-tune or return to concert pitch.Hourly rates for piano tuners average about $100 per hour nationally. For large grand pianos or other expensive instruments that require a high level of skill, some tuners charge as much as $200 per hour. For concert pianos, prices may be even higher.

Older pianos may also need to be regulated as well as tuned. Regulation can cost $200-$600 on average. A poorly regulated piano might have the following symptoms:Many piano tuners also offer piano repair and are able to recommend additional services that are needed when they come out for a tuning. If you suspect your piano needs more than just tuning, always confirm whether the tuner also provides repair, as not every tuner does. Piano tuners who also do repairs offer a wide variety of services for various prices. Here are the average national costs for common tuning and repair services:

We employ finish specialists. Make your piano shine again- like it once had. We offer full cabinet refinishing and restoration. See a more detailed description of all the piano repair we offer at our Portland Piano Repair web site.Repairing or Rebuilding Your Piano? Michelle’s Piano Company has two restoration locations in Portland, Oregon. We have a large and dedicated piano servicing staff who specialize in piano repair, finishing and rebuilding.

We do in-home tuning and pitch raising. Tuning a piano yourself is not a simple process. Piano Tuning is a learned skill. Read more about our Portland piano tuning on our Portland piano repair web site.

“Britney has tuned our pianos several times. She is professional, her rates are affordable, and best of all–our piano sounds great! I would recommend her piano tuning services to anyone, and we’ll continue to use Little Orchestra as long as we have a piano.”The average price to tune a piano ranges from $65 to $225, and the cost can increase by several hundred dollars if the piano requires multiple tuning sessions or repairs.

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Brand-new pianos need as many as three or four tunings each year initially to give the strings a chance to stretch and settle. Additionally, instruments used regularly, such as those in piano studios, practice rooms and churches, require additional tunings because the excessive playing affects the strings.

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Despite its big, bulky size, a piano is a finely crafted instrument with many delicate parts that shift and swell in response to performers and the climate.