Should I try to tune my piano myself?

digitalkettle

Bookmarked, i.e. report back with progress!

Jfingers

A very quick search revealed several in Norfolk, two who state 45+ years experience one of which was Norwich based and the other up near Kings Lynn somewhere.

Cowboyyeehaa1

As long as you don't cock things up "too" badly, I suspect the worst that will happen is it will go a bit more out of tune and you still have to call a piano tuner....

pintspiller

A mate of mine did it.

Might only have done it once though.

axisus

The thing with pro piano tuners is that they have other useful knowledge. I got a tuner in to sort my mum's old baby grand some years back, and pretty soon he said "I can tune up to pitch but it won't last long at all as the components are too old and won't hold. If I tune it lower then it could last a fair bit longer."

drofluf

axisus said:

The thing with pro piano tuners is that they have other useful knowledge. I got a tuner in to sort my mum's old baby grand some years back, and pretty soon he said "I can tune up to pitch but it won't last long at all as the components are too old and won't hold. If I tune it lower then it could last a fair bit longer."

So basically you had it in a dropped tuning? Would confuse the hell out of anyone with perfect pitch 

Sporky

If you tune the whole piano to drop D you can mash out power chords more easily. 

BillDL

You can also drop it down a semi or full tone and use a capo when needed.

Benm39

BillDL said:

You can also drop it down a semi or full tone and use a capo when needed.

That's some capo hehe

SteveRobinson

Don't forget to restring it first.

Basher

SteveRobinson said:

Don't forget to restring it first.

Could be worse.
It might have one of piano Bigsbys on it!

rze99

No

ICBM

Sporky said:

Also don't you have to do some weird tuning on pianos? Top notes a bit sharp, low notes a bit flat or something? 

I think so - but more importantly, it's not about how you tune a piano perfectly, it's how you tune it correctly *out* of perfect tune. That's why it's a job for an expert with professional training. I imagine anyone with a digital tuner and enough patience could tune a piano so that every string was exactly in tune to the equal temperament scale, but that won't sound right.

I have tuned my daughter's 37-string autoharp a few times, and that's basically how it's done - but those are single strings for each note and they are meant to be in equal temperament.

drofluf said:

So basically you had it in a dropped tuning? Would confuse the hell out of anyone with perfect pitch 

MartinB

I've tuned pianos a couple of times with an old tuning wrench I picked up on eBay. You also need a couple of rubber wedge mutes and a long felt strip mute at the bare minimum, so that you can isolate single strings in the courses of three. My bodgey method was to tune the middle octave to a tuner, and then work outwards in octaves by ear, listening carefully for where it sounds sweetest across the octaves. I'm sure the results aren't up to professional concert standard, but you can usually get a home piano to where you can play it with other instruments and not wince at it. 

If you're starting from a long way below pitch, say a semitone or more, it's a much larger job and you may run into other issues on the way. 

sev112

i have enough trouble tuning a guitar ! 

VimFuego

sev112 said:

i have enough trouble tuning a guitar ! 

s'why I switched to the spoons (well, technically it's a spoon, I'm not good enough for two).

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

Sporky said:

Also don't you have to do some weird tuning on pianos? Top notes a bit sharp, low notes a bit flat or something? 

I think so - but more importantly, it's not about how you tune a piano perfectly, it's how you tune it correctly *out* of perfect tune. That's why it's a job for an expert with professional training. I imagine anyone with a digital tuner and enough patience could tune a piano so that every string was exactly in tune to the equal temperament scale but that won't sound right. 

Most pianos use an extended tuning. There are several of these with strange names such as Werkmeister III. Many digital pianos allow you to select these at the touch of a button.

Try 'em all. Decide which is right for you. 

Meanwhile, back in the analogue world, you have to choose a tuning and stick with it.

Sporky

Lady BMcH's Roland has a brilliant honky-tonk sound. Sometimes I make her play classical pieces using it. 

JEM

rexter said:

Yep this one has moved all over the country since the 1950s I believe, Liverpool, Northumberland, Birmingham, Wales, London, now Norfolk! 

And I don’t think it’s been tuned for at least 30 years. It was actually pretty good until the last move from London to here.

If it's been that long it may take more than one visit from the tuner. I had my dad's old upright tuned last summer and the tuner warned me that because it was quite a way out it may well drift after six months or so and need another tuning.

It sounded great when he'd finished but sure enough the top end has started to sound a bit off.

rexter

JEM said:

rexter said:

Yep this one has moved all over the country since the 1950s I believe, Liverpool, Northumberland, Birmingham, Wales, London, now Norfolk! 

And I don’t think it’s been tuned for at least 30 years. It was actually pretty good until the last move from London to here.

If it's been that long it may take more than one visit from the tuner. I had my dad's old upright tuned last summer and the tuner warned me that because it was quite a way out it may well drift after six months or so and need another tuning.

It sounded great when he'd finished but sure enough the top end has started to sound a bit off.

Cheers Jem, could certainly be the case I reckon. I’m definitely sold on not messing with it myself after all the replies here!