Be Aware Of Your Piano’s Needs
Do you have a piano that needs tuning? Are you in the Ocounty area of South Carolina? For the most part, we here in upstate South Carolina and surrounding areas experience beautiful weather. That said, like most places on the map, we experience our share of climate changes.
Hot & Cold & In Between
Temperature and humidity fluctuations absolutely have an impact on your piano’s state. Let’s face it. Your piano needs to be viewed as more than the beautiful piece of furniture that you see. Inside, it is very intricate. Actually, it consists of about 12,000 parts, mostly all made of wood.
We all know what happens to wood as humidity levels change. Yes, it expands and contracts. The soundboard of your piano is the largest part of your piano. Despite its size, it also remains out of sight for the most part. Your piano’s soundboard has a “crown” which we might think of as a slight curvature that is greatest at its center. As the soundboard expands and contracts, it also affects those parts that are directly and indirectly attached to it.
Can You Hear Me Now?
The soundboard of your piano can be viewed as somewhat of an “amplifier” to your piano’s strings. Those strings would hardly be heard without the assistance of the soundboard which picks up those string vibrations with the help of the bridge and brings those vibrations to an audible level.
When the soundboard expands and contracts (the bridge, too), the tension of those strings increases and decreases rather erratically. This is a major cause of your piano going out of tune.
“Please Don’t Do This To Me!”
After an excessive amount of time lapses without your piano being tuned, this string tension greatly lessens. Since the soundboard largely depends on this string tension to be high in order for its crown to be maintained, its structural integrity is compromised with these long lapses because it gradually “gets used” to being “deformed.” When this happens and you finally make a service call to have your piano tuned, the soundboard, bridge, and strings will undergo “shock treatment” because they have been allowed to leave and remain out of their normal state for so long.
Although this long awaited care is necessary, it can have some drawbacks that could have otherwise been avoided with regular tunings. These can include broken strings, a piano that will go out of tune more rapidly, and even a cracked soundboard and/or bridge.
“Is There A Piano Tuner Near Me?”
Yes, there is. You can avoid putting your piano under this kind of unnecessary stress. Just make the simple decision to contact a piano tuner near you at least twice a year to keep those strings tight which will allow that bridge and soundboard to maintain their integrity. Your piano will thank you for it and will provide you with many happy returns.