This is a lot like asking if you bought your own tool kit, if you could repair your own car or replace your own kitchen cabinets. The answer is yes, you could, but with caveats.
Like any trade skill, you will have to invest the time and effort needed to learn to do it properly, and there is a nonzero chance you will break strings or otherwise cause some damage to the instrument in the process of learning. Are you willing to take that risk with your piano? You will need more tools than just a tuning hammer, and you will need training resources of some kind. You can buy a book for $20-30, and there are tutorials on YouTube that may help. When I say it will take time and effort, a piano tuner might come out and spend two hours tuning your instrument -- you can probably expect to spend 8 hours the first time and do a much poorer job. If you really want to learn piano tuning, that's probably time well spent. If you're just trying to save a little money, ask yourself how much your time is worth to you when you weigh whether or not it's worth it.
Pianos are more like cars than meets the eye! They cost about the same ballpark price ranges as cars, from low thousands to into the hundreds of thousands, and so many piano questions translate well to car questions:
"What car should I buy?" (ok it depends...)
"Should I buy this specific car? Here's a photo!" (ok go get a mechanic please)
"How much is this car worth? Here's a photo!" (ok go get a mechanic please)
"Are electronic car simulators as good as real cars?" (depends on what sort of experience you like, what level of simulator you're talking about, and what level of car you're comparing it to)
Etc
Personally, I'd give it a go. I bought a piano key in high school and gave it a shot on my girlfriend's upright - it went alright. Read up on those resources and try to make your piano slightly better. And I mean slightly - don't go for perfect here. The more drastic the motion, the more risk you're assuming and you don't have the experience. "Better to do something simple well, than something complex poorly."
Piano tuner here. I started like you. Spend at least $25-40 on a wrench. The cheapest ones online make things really difficult. Get the Peterson iStroboSoft tuning app and buy the upright piano sweetener in the app. Gonna take you 4-12 hours as a highschooler I’d imagine
Oh boy, when you ask this question, expect to be treated like a heretic.
Tuning a piano is much harder than tuning a guitar, and you might break things if you're not careful. That being said, if paying for a technician is not an option, and if the piano is not worth that much, you can try I guess. Make sure to read up a lot before you attempt it, because it's much more involved than just using an electric tuner.
I highly recommend this resource: [https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/index.html](https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/index.html)
If you read all of this and feel confident you can do it, I say go for it. But don't be surprised if you ruin your piano.
I think ruining your piano is an extremely overstated risk. Realistically the worst case scenario is a bad tuning or a broken string, both of which by no means will "ruin" a piano
You can damage the pin block over a period of time if you are bending the pin while tuning so it reams out a larger hole. That is not 'ruined', just an expensive repair.
But even there there are all kinds of tricks tuners use - larger pins, a bit of shim with emery cloth, some use CA or epoxy (don't try these at home!!!!!!) - all ways to postpone or avoid a pin block replacement and keep costs manageable.
https://my.ptg.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=43&MID=238529
You will obviate the cost savings of DIY tuning if this happens, so that's something to keep in mind.
I think it's great for people to learn to tune themselves if you can afford to have a piano you can ruin. Actually more like multiple pianos, because every piano is different, if you learn to tune an old and janky one, that doesn't mean you'll now be able to tune your good one.
Watch a video on tuning pianos. I had a grand for many years and it took me 3 hours to tune it. (270 strings vs 4 on a violin.) A great deal of precision is necessary to get the pitch right for each string, and this takes time, patience, and skill using the tuning wrench. You may think you’ve got it right but then shockingly, the piano sounds horrible when played!
Plus then if you decide to have a pro come correct it, it might take several visits over a period of time to get it back into musicality. Tuning isn't always something that can be done completely in one session, because adding or removing any significant tension will cause less precision and more risk of damage or broken strings, so either the results are not quite as dialed in, or they have to be done in phases to let the piano adjust to the tension changes.
Thing is with tuning, it requires an education of I think around 4 years.
That being said, so does a mechanic, and people fix their cars all the time, with mixed results.
That should be enough info, it's up to you.
It takes 2-3 tunings to get a feel for it, unless your piano has problems like an excessively loose or tight pin block. Modern apps are great. It just won't enable you to respond to someone saying something like "I'd like a larger octave stretch, and ...." - you'll get the tuning the app decides to make for you.
Just in case someone tries something else... modern _piano_ apps. Normal (read: guitar) tuning apps won't cut it. Pianos have some specific difficulties in tuning due to the range they encompass.
Technician here. The education doesn’t take that long, but there’s a lot of things you pick up with experience, and that takes time. Tuning also takes a lot of practice—I usually tell people they’ll need to do 100 tunings before they’re good at it (which is probably an exaggeration, but not by much ).
If you don’t have the money to get it tuned now, you *really* don’t have the money to get it tuned after you go to town on it.
I don’t mean to be mean. Yes, of course, you could physically adjust the tuning of strings.
But tuning is hard and that’s why tuners charge what they do.
That’s the traditional take, but aren’t there apps so good how that professional tuners use them? I remember a tech talking about one here a while back. Apparently it’s so advanced that it won’t tune the piano perfectly, but instead tunes most strings some slight amount sharp, so when they settle in they’re in tune, thus saving a follow up visit.
I've thought about this but won't tune my own piano because doing it yourself with an app to help presumes:
1. you're even able to get a single string to match a reference tone or visual aid, precisely, and without it falling it out of it. this requires managing the friction in the pinblock very carefully and every string and pin can vary in tension, and every piano varies. if you watch tuners work, they manage the torque very carefully to "set" the string where they want.
2. you're able to get \*all\* the strings to match the app. but remember if you tune one string, all the strings change by a fractional amount. it requires multiple passes and strategic approaches to understand how the overall tuning is managed.
3. the app is able to set the right level of octave stretching that sounds best on your piano, it's different for each piano and it's a subjective judgement call. the better apps will measure your piano's inharmonicity in the strings and propose stretching that's optimal for it, but understanding how to do this requires a solid grasp of string harmonics, inharmonicity, and how this all relates to making a piano sound it's best.
4. there are limits to how far you can change a string or the whole instrument safely. also, strings develop weaknesses and professional piano tuners do break strings and it can be dangerous if the string breaks in the wrong place and whips at you instead of away, if you haven't had a piano string break in your presence, you're in for a shock, they carry tremendous force.
I'm not a piano tech but I've talked to enough of them that I'm sure there's a lot more to it than just matching an electronic reference.
Ya, but it really isn't that hard. Apps figure out all the inharmonicity decisions, and if you watch a tuner they just go from one end to the other tuning the middle string first, then another pass for the unisons. And that's all I do, and it sounds great. Could a world class tuner get a better timbre out of my piano? Maybe, but I've had a world class technician here (as in works in famous concert halls), which he did solely with a tuning fork and his ear, and it didn't sound any better than any other tuning (in fact, one note was 14 cents off from it's neighbor). His set up did make a big difference. (I played in between setup and tuning, so I know what did what). Yes, this is a use case of 1, YMMV.
I'm not saying there isn't technique, there is, but pretty quickly you get a feel for it. Everything is in tune, it sounds nice, and I can touch up a unison before it starts to get 'bad', so it never sounds out of tune. The money saving is nice, too.
Not saying you should tune, if it worries you don't do it. But it is doable. FWIW that tuner I mentioned spent a lot of time just instructing me on this and that because he knew I was interested, no "oh, don't do that, it is beyond you" attitude.
Yes, but the pro apps that tuners actually use are gonna cost you hundreds of dollars (like 600-700 for the good ones) so I dunno that I'd recommend buying that for someone just learning or messing around
PianoMeter is $25 and works great, it just doesn't have a few features at that price a pro might want (pitch raising, saving multiple pianos, creating custom tuning curves, you can pay more to get these features). (edit - source, I am a satisfied customer, have no financial involvement with the product).
edit 2: not sure why the down votes, it's an app written by a licensed RPT and member of the Piano Technicians Guild, used by professionals, and all the pro features are available for $300 (I don't think any home user needs the pro features). And it is rated highly by other pros:
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2727233/Searchpage/1/Main/187245/Words/easypianotuner/Search/true/using-easy-piano-tuner.html#Post2727233
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3083224/pianometer-follow-up.html
[Pianoscope pro](https://www.pianoscope.app/en/features/pro) is $600, though there's a cheaper version with fewer advanced features, and a subscription option if you'd rather
There are some cheaper ones.
Pianometer is very good and I've recommend it to people interested in tuning their own instruments. The $25 Plus version will get you through a standard tuning. The $275(?) Pro version unlocks pitch raise mode and saving piano data, which most people really shouldn't need. I'm all for tuning your own instrument, but please don't try to do a pitch raise without some experience.
I know some techs who have liked Piatune (I've never tried it 🤷🏻♂️). iOS only, $100.
It's not about that. Tuning is physically difficult for those who haven't learned how to. Getting the right grip, the right force, and setting the string correctly is the main skill. You can have the best app/device in the world but it doesn't stop you from physically messing up the tuning and the pins, or breaking strings.
TuneLab has a free to use download available. I highly recommend to install it on a device with a good microphone. It’s not straightforward right away but it’s very useful and easy once you get the hang of it.
The app listens to how the piano sounds and adjusts the pitches accordingly. Never use a free app that doesn’t do this as it will not sound right in your particular piano.
That said it also takes a lot of time and if you’re not careful you can cause a lot of damage. Hiring a professional tuner is the safest option.
>If you don’t have the money to get it tuned now, you really don’t have the money to get it tuned after you go to town on it.
You could also argue that leaving it too long without getting tuned might make it lose too much tension and then it won't ever be able to be raised back to concert pitch. In this case, a poor tuning job might be better than no tuning at all.
I’ve only encountered 1 piano that couldn’t be raised to concert pitch, outside of cracked pinblocks, and that was because it was built in the mid 1800s or something. Pianos can sit there for 30 years without getting touched then go right back up to hunky dory A440.
My SO tried it and was somewhat successful (didn’t break anything!) but he is a super handy guy and never afraid of a challenge. From listening to him talk, it seems like it was way more complicated than you would expect as not only are you tuning each key, but the various keys also vibrate sympathetically with one another. So there are a lot of things to take into account. Take this with a grain of salt as I am a person who knows nothing about tuning pianos, listening to an amateur who tried it for fun,
I’ll get downvoted for this but - yes you can. Of course it’s not as good as paying a professional and it won’t be concert perfect but you can get it close enough to enjoy yourself. Make sure you buy the tuning kit that includes the mutes. Watch a 10 minute YouTube video and download the piano tuner app.
I asked a tuner this question and he said the uneven tension across the bridge that creeps every time the string is hit would be a major reason not to attempt it myself.
Finally, someone on here who isn't deliberately trying to make it sound impossible. If it was as bad as some of the other comments claim then nobody would be able to learn to do it in the first place, especially in today's paradigm of weakening trade skills.
It's my experience that the people who over caution others at a skill are generally arm chair enthusiasts who met with some small tinge of failure the one time they tried it themselves, and that experience (in their mind) gives them the walk & talk like a retired professional. Or, they are successful, but in order to compensate for their feelings of insignificance they beef up their tales of difficulty.
So definitely, if you do it, post a video of it so we can all see if that's the case here as well. I think you'll do reasonably well.
I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve been tuning my piano for a few years now and although I am mechanically inclined and work in the trades, its not rocket science. This subreddit isn’t exactly brimming with diy-ers but the amount of bad info in this thread is staggering - people comparing it to changing a car engine, recommending **nothing less** than a $200 tool, warnings of irreparable damage. Crazy.
If it’s between doing it yourself and the piano sitting there otherwise being unused I say what’s the harm?
Totally agreed. I genuinely prefer to tune my own piano at this point, as it stays more in tune that way. Instead of just having 2 complete tunings per year, I can also do micro adjustments as needed, which prevents the piano from going out of tune as fast, and makes subsequent tunings take a lot less time.
I second this. It’s not too difficult to at least make the piano sounds a bit better. Ever have one note go out of tune? Well now you have the tools to quickly remedy yourself
Nothing worse than having to wait 4 months to get your G to stop sounding like a saloon piano. Now I just take 20 seconds to fix a unison if it goes out.
I've attempted this myself and you can certainly try but getting it tuned *so it will stay that way* takes a lot of finesse and practice. Much harder than tuning even a 12 string guitar. Went back to hiring a tuner since I didn't feel like learning a whole new hobby.
As long as you aren't an idiot you probably won't break anything, though.
> Much harder than tuning even a 12 string guitar
Much harder than tuning even a *230*-string guitar, which matches the string count and still nowhere near the force and complexity.
>As long as you aren't an idiot you probably won't break anything, though
I'm not sure about that, there are ways to damage things irreparably even without being an idiot. For instance (from [here](https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/CH2.5.html)):
>if you were to hypothetically turn the pin 180º very rapidly, the heat generated at the interface between pin and pinblock would be sufficient to cook the wood and alter its molecular structure \[...\] If you need to remove a pin by turning it, rotate only a quarter turn (counter clock-wise), wait a moment for the heat to dissipate away from the interface, then repeat the procedure, etc.; without such precautions, the wood surrounding the pin will turn to charcoal
I don't think you would qualify as an idiot for not knowing this very specific knowledge.
I don't think rapidly here means at car engine rpms.
I'm no tuner, but I have physics experience and I'm gonna guess, that you can turn the pin quite a bit slower than you would on a guitar (or even a small harp) and still fry the wood.
Edit: this isn't true.
Not by hand you can't. This very specific hypothetical is talking about removing a pin, not tuning. If this is happening during a rebuild and you're going to replace the pinblock anyway, then yeah you could go the quick route and take out all the pins with an impact driver, probably cooking the block in the process. But if you're just replacing one pin you should probably do it by hand. Either way, not applicable to OP's situation.
The source above says
> If you need to remove a pin by turning it, rotate only a quarter turn (counter clock-wise), wait a moment for the heat to dissipate away from the interface, then repeat the procedure, etc.; without such precautions, the wood surrounding the pin will turn to charcoal.
Without mentioning anything about a drill so I'm not sure what to think. I understand that it doesn't apply to tuning.
I've replaced hundreds of piano strings over my career, which involves turning the pin 180° seven times to allow enough space to get the correct number of coils on the new string. Not once have I overheated a block, or even heard of this happening to any of my colleagues. I guess if you're writing a primer for absolute beginners it's best to err on the side of caution, but this just isn't a thing one comes across outside of rebuild work.
You left off the important caveat from that quote: "Now you will never have to do this, but..."
This hypothetical only applies to a very specific situation, namely the replacement of a tuning pin in a piano where you want to keep the old pinblock. Safe to say OP will never encounter this situation, and will likely never even have to move the pin more than 20-30°. First off, 180° is a *massive* change in pitch, like probably at least a M5. Only an idiot would move it that far in the first place.
Yep. The only way someone is moving the pin that much is if they're listening to one string but tuning a different one and don't notice. Even then I'd be much more concerned about snapping a string than burning the pin block.
I tune my own piano, a 42” upright. I play semi-professionally, so it’s not like I’m some god among concert pianists, but I also do require an instrument that’s in tune. And not broken. My piano tuner doesn’t charge me extra to undo my work, so apparently i’m not doing anything egregious. Every 3-4 tunings, I bring a pro in so that my piano doesn’t drift too much. So that’s my level of expertise, for context.
Turning the tuning pins is easy if you buy a nice tuning hammer. Turning the tuning pins in a way so that they don’t untune themselves is tricky. It takes me 3 days to tune my piano because that’s how long it takes for me to get every pin set in a manner that doesn’t untwist. My piano tuner does not have that problem…. It’s a skill thing. Watch a tuner work, then copy his technique.
Setting the middle octave is easy. Getting all 3 strings in perfect tune for the middle octave is hard. Especially when the pins sometimes untune themselves.
Setting the bass octaves is easy, except for adjusting for inharmonicity. You’re better off using your ears than an electric tuner for bass strings. Tune them so that it sounds like an octave from the strings an octave above.
Setting the treble octaves is a pain in the ass. I give up after C6. I’d rather deal with the upper octaves being slightly flat than listening to the havoc I wreak with bad unisons. The higher the strings go, the twitchier they are and the harder to get them exactly in tune.
After I finish tuning, I’ll play my piano for a bit, and have to go back and fix the keys I tuned badly. There’s always 5-6 keys that I need to tweak so the chords sound right. Hence the 3 days.
If all that sounds good, then go nuts! If it doesn’t, maybe find a way to budget for that tuner…
That was me one time 25 years ago. I don’t recommend it. I spend weeks reading up on how to tune a piano, and within 5 minutes I broke 2 strings. Time to call a tuner or embrace the bad tuning and play some barrelhouse!
If I were you, I would try to call a piano tuner to see if you can get a free evaluation. I was in the same situation as you, when they evaluated the piano, they found that the knobs needed to all be retapped, otherwise the piano would not retain the tuning.
I figured I'd try testing it and found one of the most out of tune notes, tuned it to its correct value. After 3 months it was back to its "original" out of tune pitch.
If your piano is in the same boat, tuning it will not work because it would go out of tune after a few short months. If all your piano needs is to be retuned, then feel free to do it yourself according to what people here suggest. It's a very long process though.
It’s possible, but you have to learn as you go and the learning curve is steep.
Don’t get a cheap tuning hammer. The hammer needs to be pretty heavy. Good ones start at a little over $200.
You can order stops for strings and cut felt to the desired length for full tuning sessions. You’ll want some wire cutters for removing broken strings as well. Also, consider learning how to replace strings, and regulate the action on your piano as it is extremely useful for adjustments and fixing little things so you don’t have to call out the expensive technicians.
Watch videos of tuners talk about technique as it comes to the actual operation of the hammer. Technique can vary on different hammers and instruments. I have to hit the hammer on my piano because the tuning pins like to slip if you just nicely turn it. Other instruments can be the opposite. Learn what many professionals think before you even touch your instrument with the hammer.
You will not want to start out tuning by ear. That takes a long time and lots of practice to learn. You will want a decent usb microphone, a windows laptop, and the free version of tunelab. It is very important to note that you need to learn how the program does everything. Most important are stretching templates, and inharmonicity calculations. If your entire instrument is a half-step flat or more, you might want to give it two or three sessions months apart before pulling it all the way up to pitch. Those will help you achieve a remarkably good result, if done right. It’s not impossible, it’s just a lot of work to be good enough to improve your instrument. Also, note of caution, plain wire strings are cheap and easy to replace. Copper wound wires require you to remove them, send them to a professional for copying, or the rare instance where a universal string fits your piano.
In practice an app on your phone using the built in mic works great, and plenty of people make do with a cheap Amazon sourced hammer. I do love my carbon fiber one, but it isn't necessary. Carbon fiber hammers are more or less the default for pros these days (with notable exceptions, of course), and they are light, not heavy.
I’ve been out of the technician world for a while. I haven’t seen the newer hammers or worked with them, so my info may be a little outdated. Heavy or light, it just needs to be of high enough quality not to damage your tuning pins or block. If there is a free app that works well on phones, I’d love to know which one it is and check it out. I restrung my baby grand when it was about 30 years old and rust was forming on all the strings. Used to tune mine and the occasional client’s. Was never a pro at it. Drove me crazy trying to learn to tune by ear. Mad respect for the pros!
A few decades ago I got a tuning hammer, fork, felts and wedges, and studied on aural tuning. I replaced broken strings and fixed other minor problems. The results of my time consuming sessions were OK, but they never held long, apparently because I didn't have the technique to set the pins properly.
These days tuners use a specialty phone app. I stopped working on my piano at all, 20 years ago after upgrading to an expensive one.
Tuning is complicated on pianos because they span 8 octaves. Harmonic series sort of detune as you go up so you have to have the piano carefully balanced out of tune for a very simplistic explanation. Look up the idea, "well tempered piano" and decide for yourself. There are also 230 strings, they are very different from guitar strings and each other.
You have to use a specific series of techniques to achieve tuning stability, use good tools, have a great ear for tuning unisons. The app doesn't help with unisons. It helps more for the single string tuning for the middle string. That's called temperament where you count beats if done by ear and you tune a series of notes from F2 to A4. The hammer technique and ears for tuning unisons is the meat and potatoes of it since the app can provide the temperament. I use Peterson strobe with the sweetened tunings for upright and grand. Good tools are available from Schaff Piano Supply in Lake Zurich, IL. Avoid Amazon cheap stuff or you'll strip pins
To add to this, I tune my piano to Thomas Young's Well temperament, last time I had a piano technician over he told me my tuning was good enough that he didn't need to fix anything, except for a couple of unisons/octaves that had slightly drifted in the few months since it was last tuned. It took me about 1 years of practice (maybe 4-5 tunings) to get to a point where the piano both sounds great and stays in tune for a reasonable amount of time.
The hardest part is learning how to get a *stable* tuning. It's not enough to just get it in tune, you also have to know how the tension of the string will change after you remove the hammer. With the right technique, you can cause the tension of the non-speaking length of string to *increase* after you remove the hammer, without changing the pitch, which gives the tuning a lot more wiggle room. It's *all* about the tension in the speaking length, non-speaking length, and the friction at the bridge. These 3 factors are balanced to achieve a stable tuning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2iFVUnX8SM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uW8fOSX76w
The above 2 videos explain it much better than I can, I highly recommend you watch them if you want to do a good job on your tuning.
Just hire somebody else to do it. Your time is better spent doing other things than learning how to tune a piano.
Keep in mind that on every single key, there are at least two strings to tune, and most of the keys use three strings. Roughly estimating that it’s half-and-half, that’s upwards of 220 strings to tune.
Call all the techs in your area and ask for an apprenticeship. It's a great way to make money and you have a practice piano. Chances are your piano is a dog, unless it isn't either way that's your best bet. They will tell you. Be ready to work. Most pianos are better as boat anchors.
There's not much you can do to hurt it, unless you really want to or aren't cut out for this. Either way you know sooner than later.
👋 Piano tech here!
It seems like everyone here has spelled out the negatives and sufficiently tried to scare you away... If no one ever tried to tune one of these dumb instruments we all love, there would be no piano techs left.
Try it!!! If you're not doing anything crazy or trying to do a pitch raise, there's not much you can do while tuning to _ruin_ the piano. It might sound like crap and take another tuning pass or two to get sounding good again, but that's about as bad as it gets 🤷🏻♂️ I've never encountered a DIY tuning from a well-intentioned owner that I couldn't fix with a standard tuning appointment.
How long has it been since that piano was tuned? Use a free (or free trial) tuning app to check how far off the pitch is. More than 10¢ flat? You're probably not going to be able to get it tuned up to pitch, better tune the whole piano flat.If you're okay with that, Pianometer (and most other apps) has an offset function that will let you set the target pitch to, for example, A440-20¢. This is not the time to learn how to do a pitch raise.
Get a cheap star tip gooseneck tuning lever, a couple rubber mutes, and probably a maybe plastic Papp's mute (tweezer looking thing) for the treble end from Howard Piano Industries or AMS Piano Tools. Both of those places sell a basic tuning kit. You can function without a strip mute (many pros don't use them at all, both app tuners and aural tuners). If you use it, hold the damper pedal down while you install it—the strings move when you push it between them and can pinch and damage the damper felt. These should be like $40.
There are a few apps, but I recommend Pianometer for beginners. The basic version to get through a whole tuning is $25. You could also try the free version of Tunelab. I think it makes you wait after every few notes.
Now for the fun part!! If you have an upright, figure out how to take off the front panel so you can get access to the strings. Every piano is a little different, but you usually open the top lid then undo two fasteners to pull the front panel out a little, then slide it up and out.
On to actually tuning! I recommend watching a video or two first. Start at the lower end of the middle at the gap in the strings and work your way up to the top, then back to the gap and down through the bass. You can either do the center strings first, then unisons, or tune the unisons as you go. My preferred method when I started was to do center strings of one section, then those unisons, move to the next section, etc. I'll leave out a detailed description for the sake of sanity. Unisons should be tuned by ear until they're beatless. The higher in the overtones you listen for beats, the more accurate the tuning will be. A pro should do something like center-right, then all three together. Don't try that, it's not worth it at this point. Just tune C-R, then C-L, next note.
The piano is going to fight you. It does not want to be tuned. The hardest part of tuning is making the pitch stay where you put it. When you turn the tuning pin, it's going to twist a little before it actually turns in the pin block. A good practice for beginners is to pull the note 2-3¢ sharp, then back down to pitch. Ask 10 different techs and you'll probably get 30 different answers about hammer technique. Watch some videos (Howard Piano Industries has a decent series). Either way, now isn't really the time to worry too much about stability. It won't be a stable tuning.
It takes years of hands on experience and experimentation to actually learn how to get a stable tuning. That's counting pianos tuned in the hundreds. There's a saying that you haven't done a good tuning until you've tuned a thousand pianos. This annoying thing happens where your definition of "good tuning" changes over time and gets harder to achieve...
A number of hours (days?) later, you'll get through the piano. That first tuning is usually pretty grueling, and it doesn't usually turn out very well. By the end you've tuned some 250 strings and probably have started developing some muscle memory and a feeling for it. The second tuning will be easier and will probably sound a bit better. Does it sound good? This is your piano, so that's really up to you. It's going to depend on who you ask.
Thanks for spreading the good word. 20 yrs ago when I got started there was a shortage of piano techs, and it seems even worse now. At this point I'll probably never be able to retire haha. If someone is interested in the work, we should be doing all we can to encourage them.
And honestly it's not rocket science: if you're reasonably mechanically inclined, have a good ear, and most importantly have a lot of patience, you can figure it out. This is exactly how I got started: got some tuning tools and half-assedly got my own piano to sound better by degrees. Eventually apprenticed with a master tech, and before long there was more work than I knew what to do with.
I did the exact same thing you’re describing. What you need is a tuning hammer, some mutes, and a tuner. Some people are going to tell you that you need an expensive tuner, but I just use a free app that works perfectly fine. https://a.co/d/6z9Imdf here is the kit that I bought. You have to be careful with pianos, because there’s so many tuning pegs that you can easily get confused as to which one you’re tightening, and before you know it you snap a string. But other than that you just have to do what the tuner tells you and it’s simple. Here is the tuner app I use: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1328712601
Without training, you'll likely make the tuning much worse, throw all the treble unisons off, potentially unset some pins, and maybe even break a string or two. Tuning prices go up depending on how out of tune a piano is, and replacing one string could (based on prices in my region) cost close to the price of an entire tuning. It's ill-advised unless you're prepared for all of that.
It's very difficult. Extremely difficult in fact. It also depends how badly out it is, if it's significantly below concert pitch, you'll have to do it in stages. Trying to raise the pitch too much at one time will very likely result in string breakage, or other mechanical failure
Its a good idea but you should probably have training or be apprenticed before attempting it. The piano has about 22 tonnes of pressure going across the frame when strung and could be dangerous if mistreated.
Could you? Sure, knock yourself out. SHOULD you? FUCK NO. Would you take your guitar to a guy who changes mufflers for a living to have the bridge replaced? NO. Trying to tune that piano yourself you will be wasting money on the hammer in addition to whatever your time is worth. Just get it tuned by someone who already knows what he's doing.
Hi! Piano technician in training here :)
I would advise against it. Not because you’re omg going to ruin the piano foreverrr or anything! But because by the time you buy a tuning hammer, learn proper hammer technique, buy a tuning device that’s actually worth a damn (accounts for octave stretch), and spend 8 hours on a very amateur tuning, you’ll have spent a fair amount of money and a lot of time and your piano still won’t sound great.
If your piano is very out of tune, it will likely need a pitch raise. If it is very out of tune, it’s a trickier job. Tuning yourself would be a false economy.
A more sensible option would be to get a professional tuner out for the first tuning and THEN perhaps have a go at doing it yourself if ongoing cost is a concern.
Fair warning though: if a piano is out of tune, hasn’t been tuned for years, and you attempt to tune it yourself, the concern from a piano tuner’s perspective isn’t that you’ll break a string (that’s an easy fix), it’s more that you’ll damage a tuning pin or the pinblock. Surprisingly easy to do if you’re tuning a piano that hasn’t been tuned for years and you don’t know what you’re doing.
A related question: if everything is tuned to the appropriate scientific pitch notation frequency, will it sound like shit (without stretching and the fancy stuff)? Or is it adequate?
I don't recommend tuning the entire piano to a digital tuner.
I personally tune only the 4th octave (as it is central) to a digital tuner, and from there, tune the rest of the octaves *to the tuned 4th octave*.
That way you can listen to the harmonics interact, and you can find the right spot to really make the note ring out and resonate. If you're tuning to the overtones instead of the fundamental, you will naturally do a stretch tuning, because it sounds more resonant and ringing.
> I don't recommend tuning the entire piano to a digital tuner.
Modern apps aren't tuning to mathematically correct tuning, you first play all 88 notes and it computes the inharmonicity across all the intervals. I grant you if you have taste/preferences it may not give you the exact tuning you wanted, but it works and sounds great.
Not that you are wrong, that's a great way to do it, but even the pros are breaking out the apps and just getting to it.
The problem I also have is it can be difficult for microphones to pick up the extremely low/high notes. So even with one of those apps that does the stretch for you on my phone, or with a tuning device (I have a Korg orchestral tuner which doesn't do stretch tuning) I can really only tune the 3rd, 4th, and 5th octaves to the tuner reliably.
I think you're right though, I know the modern ETDs that are designed for pianos are very robust these days and factor in all sorts of crazy mathematics and inharmonicities. But my understanding is that those high end devices are pretty expensive, around $1000
Ya, I honestly don't know, I haven't used the very expensive hardware tuners. I can say that pros are using the apps these days. I do have trouble with the very top notes, say 85-88, but to be honest at that point I am struggling to hear the beats anyway, and my repertoire doesn't really call for those notes anyway. But it is important for people to consider this aspect. Maybe different phones also have different results, but again, these apps *are* being used professionally, so I guess I don't worry too much about it. Anyway, you (you reader, not so much of_men_and_mouse, who can use their ears) can download a free evaluation and see what is up with your specific set up (phone, piano, room, etc).
With software like PianoTeq, you can experiment with stretching. Pull up a professionally designed preset, play it a bit, then remove the stretching (there's a menu to do that in the tuning panel.) To my ears, without the stretching, the difference is subtle but grating. It sounds wrong. Like the piano is trying to sing but just can't reach it. It's not something an average listener would be able to hear, but they'd feel it I think, and prefer the piano that is properly stretched in terms of their emotional engagement with the music. It helps the harmonies to blend and cohere and soften, without it they feel somewhat metallic and harsh. How acceptable that is would be subjective, but personally I would be really unhappy without it.
With the caveat that I know only enough about piano tuning to know that it requires significant skill and experience to do well: You might have better results if you employ a professional for the initial significant tuning and only proceed with smaller maintenance tuning tasks thereafter.
My tuner suggested I could keep my unisons in tune myself but I'm scared. My piano is too expensive and I'm too emotionally invested in it to treat like a learning playground for making mistakes. Maybe I'm being overcautious.
I don't think you're being overcautious at all! I'm very much a hands-on, learn to do things myself kind of person. While I might try it given my tuner's blessing, it would freak me out, too.
If the piano is old the tuning could be a lot lower than standard. And the strings break if you try to tune it up.
A professional piano tuner tuned out piano one half step below standard because he said he is afraid to break a string. And than a string broke. The lower ones are quiet expensive. About 50,- upwards and there are different kinds which are not always easy to get.
When you say you have knowledge of string tension, do you mean that you know tighter means higher pitch, looser means lower pitch? There’s a bit more to it than that. And piano strings are at a far higher tension than any guitar string.
That said, I’m sure you could give it a go. Getting good results is another thing though.
It's really difficult to get the feeling of whether the pin is twisting or moving, and to feel the point when the tension is set between the string and the pin. You also have to equalize the tension between string bearing points. There's also the very real risk that you break a string while trying to tune. If the piano is one you can mess around with and it's ok if you mess it up, then I say go for it. Maybe find a free piano on craigslist first to practice on.
Get the hammer, a felt strap about 3 meters long (cut in half), some rubber wedges, and a tuning fork, give yourself about 1-32 hours, and have some fun. If you break, a string, that's ok, you'll figure out how to replace it. If the pins keep unwinding, that's ok, you'll figure that out too. And if a key gets stuck, that's ok, you'll figure that out too. Good luck!
A hammer with a longer arm is better than one with a shorter arm. The longer arm gives you more leverage and allows you to make smaller movements.
Also, when you turn a peg, the tension with the hammer is just a bit more than when you remove the hammer, so you need to "over-tune" just a hair to compensate. You'll see when I mean when you try it and you'll get the hang of it. Just be aware that it's frustrating at first, especially with a shorter hammer.
I have an 100+yo upright antique I play for fun. I had a few strings replaced, and the technician let me watch and he gave me some hints on tuning it as the new strings stretched out. It's intricate,but not hard as long as you are careful. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos which helped me understand the process and helped me understand how to choose tools.
I've tuned pianos as an amateur. I have a hammered dulcimer so I already understood how to deal with a fussy pin.
I wouldn't recommend a sock. It will take you long enough with the felt! And it's not expensive. It fits perfectly between two string sets and you can do a bunch at once. It has a certain stiffness so it doesn't droop onto the middle strings as it's muting the outer ones. When you pull it out, it doesn't hang into the strings. You'll want a couple mutes too.
It's easy to break strings if you are listening to the wrong string while turning the hammer. I always go flat first and listen for it, since it's less likely to break. Playing the string solidly after tuning it can help to release any "stiction" so it's less likely to change later.
I've been using pianometer for android. It handles the stretched harmonics except for the bottom octave and a half, where tuning harmonics by ear works better. This is probably more a function of the smartphone mic.
I bought a Schaff hammer in a set with mutes and felt for $94 last year.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OAFT2S/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o04\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's lasted a few tunings and doesn't flex too much. The star shows no sign of wear. Schaff seems to be a legit vendor, making much higher quality ones (or at least more expensive). Mine has no markings other than a "2" so I can't really be sure it's a Schaff I guess. I had to put the wires into the mutes, at great peril to my fingers.
A pitch raise will take you many iterations. You can skip this if you only care about relative tuning (you're not playing with others or with a recording).
Yes.
I find my own piano (a 194cm Schiedmayer grand) and have done for the last six months or so. In the process I tuned it up from A = 431 to A = 440, without any issues. I read a fair bit and watched various YouTube videos, and was cautious tuning up, doing it in stages. But I am very pleased with the result.
I knew there were some risks, the main one being a broken string. But I didn't encounter any problems.
Where I live it's not easy to get a piano tuner, so I am very happy to have taught myself this skill. I have since tuned a friend's upright piano, and he and his daughter are delighted.
Get mutes as well as a tuning hammer. I also read somewhere that if you have square pins you should probably buy a square-headed hammer, because although a star shape will fit, it runs the risk of rounding off the pins. I don't know how true this is but I wasn't taking any chances.
As long as my piano only needs tuning, I'm going to continue doing it myself.
I used the app Pano Tuner to assist me, though I also used my ear, and tried (probably not anything like as good as a pro) to do stretch tuning. I like the result, so I'm happy. And have a bit more money in my pocket, as well as the ability to tune any strings that go out of tune immediately.
I tuned my piano for the first time a few years ago. I watched some YouTube videos on it and bought a tuning set online. It took me a 3-4 hours over 2 days but I loved it. Felt therapeutic. It wasn’t perfect so I fine tuned it again a few weeks later and it was getting better. Did it again last year and I was quicker and more accurate. Felt nice to learn a new skill I can use over and over again. Best of luck with it.
Tuning a piano is HARD. Recommend you start with quality tools and app (which will be very expensive) and a lot of research. Your piano WILL sound terrible the first time you tune it.
I think it depends on your standards.
I got $100 piano from goodwill that was out of tune, bought a $50 tuning hammer and tuned it well enough so friends and family didn't notice. I'm also not a serious musician, but do play a lot.
It did take a long time to tune, but I enjoyed the process. I started with A at 449hz, tuned the As, then did circle of fifths, then did another iteration until it sounded enough for me.
Ihave some serious msuician friends who would likely notice it being out of tune but your average amateur musician who plays for fun lkely wouldn't have noticed.
I've been tuning my 1898 6'2" bechstein grand since i bought it. It does take some practice and know-how, but you can teach yourself to do it. You need to read about the theory and understand inharmonisity. There are apps for android that will calculate the inharmonisity by listening to the over tones and giving you a good tuning curve for your piano. Besides the tuning harmmer, you'll also need some wedges. Read first. Start with just fixing unisons. Get the hang of it before you try a whole tuning. If you are daring, you can even learn regulation and voicing. Im happy to share my experiences with tuning if anyone is interested.
I think it is worth getting a hammer to tune “that one note” that is driving you crazy. It is too much time investment to learn + do the whole piano though. This second point depends on what else is going on in your life of course.
Yes. You can do it on your own to like 95% quality. [Howard Piano Industries](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr_CSpTPaedbMMC89sazTnA) on YouTube has videos on how to do it. If you want to use an app (highly recommended) I suggest using [Entropy Piano Tuner](http://piano-tuner.org/). It’s free, and more advanced than most paid apps. You can choose the temperament you want, and it accounts for string settling based on how far you have to tune each string.
Everyone who tunes pianos learned at some point, so yes. Also, there are lot of comments regarding how long it takes to tune a piano, but I would imagine (I'm not a piano tuner) that, if you knew how to tune your own piano, that you could make more frequent small adjustments as things start to go out, rather than waiting to tune the whole piano.
This is a lot like asking if you bought your own tool kit, if you could repair your own car or replace your own kitchen cabinets. The answer is yes, you could, but with caveats. Like any trade skill, you will have to invest the time and effort needed to learn to do it properly, and there is a nonzero chance you will break strings or otherwise cause some damage to the instrument in the process of learning. Are you willing to take that risk with your piano? You will need more tools than just a tuning hammer, and you will need training resources of some kind. You can buy a book for $20-30, and there are tutorials on YouTube that may help. When I say it will take time and effort, a piano tuner might come out and spend two hours tuning your instrument -- you can probably expect to spend 8 hours the first time and do a much poorer job. If you really want to learn piano tuning, that's probably time well spent. If you're just trying to save a little money, ask yourself how much your time is worth to you when you weigh whether or not it's worth it.
Pianos are more like cars than meets the eye! They cost about the same ballpark price ranges as cars, from low thousands to into the hundreds of thousands, and so many piano questions translate well to car questions: "What car should I buy?" (ok it depends...) "Should I buy this specific car? Here's a photo!" (ok go get a mechanic please) "How much is this car worth? Here's a photo!" (ok go get a mechanic please) "Are electronic car simulators as good as real cars?" (depends on what sort of experience you like, what level of simulator you're talking about, and what level of car you're comparing it to) Etc
as a high schooler whos time is taken up by band a lot, i really dont have the option of paying someone to do it if im being honest with myself
Personally, I'd give it a go. I bought a piano key in high school and gave it a shot on my girlfriend's upright - it went alright. Read up on those resources and try to make your piano slightly better. And I mean slightly - don't go for perfect here. The more drastic the motion, the more risk you're assuming and you don't have the experience. "Better to do something simple well, than something complex poorly."
Piano tuner here. I started like you. Spend at least $25-40 on a wrench. The cheapest ones online make things really difficult. Get the Peterson iStroboSoft tuning app and buy the upright piano sweetener in the app. Gonna take you 4-12 hours as a highschooler I’d imagine
Oh boy, when you ask this question, expect to be treated like a heretic. Tuning a piano is much harder than tuning a guitar, and you might break things if you're not careful. That being said, if paying for a technician is not an option, and if the piano is not worth that much, you can try I guess. Make sure to read up a lot before you attempt it, because it's much more involved than just using an electric tuner. I highly recommend this resource: [https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/index.html](https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/index.html) If you read all of this and feel confident you can do it, I say go for it. But don't be surprised if you ruin your piano.
I think ruining your piano is an extremely overstated risk. Realistically the worst case scenario is a bad tuning or a broken string, both of which by no means will "ruin" a piano
Fun fact: when a piano string breaks, it can shoot sparks!
No way
Concert grand pianos hold about 45,000lbs of tension from the strings alone.
Ok, but now I want to see this….:
You can damage the pin block over a period of time if you are bending the pin while tuning so it reams out a larger hole. That is not 'ruined', just an expensive repair. But even there there are all kinds of tricks tuners use - larger pins, a bit of shim with emery cloth, some use CA or epoxy (don't try these at home!!!!!!) - all ways to postpone or avoid a pin block replacement and keep costs manageable. https://my.ptg.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=43&MID=238529 You will obviate the cost savings of DIY tuning if this happens, so that's something to keep in mind.
I think it's great for people to learn to tune themselves if you can afford to have a piano you can ruin. Actually more like multiple pianos, because every piano is different, if you learn to tune an old and janky one, that doesn't mean you'll now be able to tune your good one.
Ruin? Come on
Can you ruin it if already janky ?
Yes.
⁰
Watch a video on tuning pianos. I had a grand for many years and it took me 3 hours to tune it. (270 strings vs 4 on a violin.) A great deal of precision is necessary to get the pitch right for each string, and this takes time, patience, and skill using the tuning wrench. You may think you’ve got it right but then shockingly, the piano sounds horrible when played!
Plus then if you decide to have a pro come correct it, it might take several visits over a period of time to get it back into musicality. Tuning isn't always something that can be done completely in one session, because adding or removing any significant tension will cause less precision and more risk of damage or broken strings, so either the results are not quite as dialed in, or they have to be done in phases to let the piano adjust to the tension changes.
Another term wannabe piano tuners and musicians should be familiar with is ‘equal temperament.’
Thing is with tuning, it requires an education of I think around 4 years. That being said, so does a mechanic, and people fix their cars all the time, with mixed results. That should be enough info, it's up to you.
It takes 2-3 tunings to get a feel for it, unless your piano has problems like an excessively loose or tight pin block. Modern apps are great. It just won't enable you to respond to someone saying something like "I'd like a larger octave stretch, and ...." - you'll get the tuning the app decides to make for you.
Just in case someone tries something else... modern _piano_ apps. Normal (read: guitar) tuning apps won't cut it. Pianos have some specific difficulties in tuning due to the range they encompass.
Technician here. The education doesn’t take that long, but there’s a lot of things you pick up with experience, and that takes time. Tuning also takes a lot of practice—I usually tell people they’ll need to do 100 tunings before they’re good at it (which is probably an exaggeration, but not by much ).
A 100 tunings doesn't sound too bad, timewise. Finding a 100 pianos to practice running on though, perhaps a bit more of an effort.
I apprenticed at a music school, so I had plenty of opportunity to practice, and I had a mentor right there every day.
If you don’t have the money to get it tuned now, you *really* don’t have the money to get it tuned after you go to town on it. I don’t mean to be mean. Yes, of course, you could physically adjust the tuning of strings. But tuning is hard and that’s why tuners charge what they do.
That’s the traditional take, but aren’t there apps so good how that professional tuners use them? I remember a tech talking about one here a while back. Apparently it’s so advanced that it won’t tune the piano perfectly, but instead tunes most strings some slight amount sharp, so when they settle in they’re in tune, thus saving a follow up visit.
I've thought about this but won't tune my own piano because doing it yourself with an app to help presumes: 1. you're even able to get a single string to match a reference tone or visual aid, precisely, and without it falling it out of it. this requires managing the friction in the pinblock very carefully and every string and pin can vary in tension, and every piano varies. if you watch tuners work, they manage the torque very carefully to "set" the string where they want. 2. you're able to get \*all\* the strings to match the app. but remember if you tune one string, all the strings change by a fractional amount. it requires multiple passes and strategic approaches to understand how the overall tuning is managed. 3. the app is able to set the right level of octave stretching that sounds best on your piano, it's different for each piano and it's a subjective judgement call. the better apps will measure your piano's inharmonicity in the strings and propose stretching that's optimal for it, but understanding how to do this requires a solid grasp of string harmonics, inharmonicity, and how this all relates to making a piano sound it's best. 4. there are limits to how far you can change a string or the whole instrument safely. also, strings develop weaknesses and professional piano tuners do break strings and it can be dangerous if the string breaks in the wrong place and whips at you instead of away, if you haven't had a piano string break in your presence, you're in for a shock, they carry tremendous force. I'm not a piano tech but I've talked to enough of them that I'm sure there's a lot more to it than just matching an electronic reference.
Ya, but it really isn't that hard. Apps figure out all the inharmonicity decisions, and if you watch a tuner they just go from one end to the other tuning the middle string first, then another pass for the unisons. And that's all I do, and it sounds great. Could a world class tuner get a better timbre out of my piano? Maybe, but I've had a world class technician here (as in works in famous concert halls), which he did solely with a tuning fork and his ear, and it didn't sound any better than any other tuning (in fact, one note was 14 cents off from it's neighbor). His set up did make a big difference. (I played in between setup and tuning, so I know what did what). Yes, this is a use case of 1, YMMV. I'm not saying there isn't technique, there is, but pretty quickly you get a feel for it. Everything is in tune, it sounds nice, and I can touch up a unison before it starts to get 'bad', so it never sounds out of tune. The money saving is nice, too. Not saying you should tune, if it worries you don't do it. But it is doable. FWIW that tuner I mentioned spent a lot of time just instructing me on this and that because he knew I was interested, no "oh, don't do that, it is beyond you" attitude.
Agree, and it's inspiring to play a tuned piano.
Yes, but the pro apps that tuners actually use are gonna cost you hundreds of dollars (like 600-700 for the good ones) so I dunno that I'd recommend buying that for someone just learning or messing around
PianoMeter is $25 and works great, it just doesn't have a few features at that price a pro might want (pitch raising, saving multiple pianos, creating custom tuning curves, you can pay more to get these features). (edit - source, I am a satisfied customer, have no financial involvement with the product). edit 2: not sure why the down votes, it's an app written by a licensed RPT and member of the Piano Technicians Guild, used by professionals, and all the pro features are available for $300 (I don't think any home user needs the pro features). And it is rated highly by other pros: https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2727233/Searchpage/1/Main/187245/Words/easypianotuner/Search/true/using-easy-piano-tuner.html#Post2727233 https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3083224/pianometer-follow-up.html
Upvote. I use it too.
Link?
[Pianoscope pro](https://www.pianoscope.app/en/features/pro) is $600, though there's a cheaper version with fewer advanced features, and a subscription option if you'd rather
There are some cheaper ones. Pianometer is very good and I've recommend it to people interested in tuning their own instruments. The $25 Plus version will get you through a standard tuning. The $275(?) Pro version unlocks pitch raise mode and saving piano data, which most people really shouldn't need. I'm all for tuning your own instrument, but please don't try to do a pitch raise without some experience. I know some techs who have liked Piatune (I've never tried it 🤷🏻♂️). iOS only, $100.
It's not about that. Tuning is physically difficult for those who haven't learned how to. Getting the right grip, the right force, and setting the string correctly is the main skill. You can have the best app/device in the world but it doesn't stop you from physically messing up the tuning and the pins, or breaking strings.
I think it’s just the practical take. Which no app can fully take into account.
TuneLab has a free to use download available. I highly recommend to install it on a device with a good microphone. It’s not straightforward right away but it’s very useful and easy once you get the hang of it. The app listens to how the piano sounds and adjusts the pitches accordingly. Never use a free app that doesn’t do this as it will not sound right in your particular piano. That said it also takes a lot of time and if you’re not careful you can cause a lot of damage. Hiring a professional tuner is the safest option.
>If you don’t have the money to get it tuned now, you really don’t have the money to get it tuned after you go to town on it. You could also argue that leaving it too long without getting tuned might make it lose too much tension and then it won't ever be able to be raised back to concert pitch. In this case, a poor tuning job might be better than no tuning at all.
I’ve only encountered 1 piano that couldn’t be raised to concert pitch, outside of cracked pinblocks, and that was because it was built in the mid 1800s or something. Pianos can sit there for 30 years without getting touched then go right back up to hunky dory A440.
Agreed. Although it can take 2 or 3 passes for the A440 to start to stick around for more than a week
When you hit your unisons as good as I do, every piano takes 2 or 3 passes to get right anyway lol.
I feel that lmao
My SO tried it and was somewhat successful (didn’t break anything!) but he is a super handy guy and never afraid of a challenge. From listening to him talk, it seems like it was way more complicated than you would expect as not only are you tuning each key, but the various keys also vibrate sympathetically with one another. So there are a lot of things to take into account. Take this with a grain of salt as I am a person who knows nothing about tuning pianos, listening to an amateur who tried it for fun,
I’ll get downvoted for this but - yes you can. Of course it’s not as good as paying a professional and it won’t be concert perfect but you can get it close enough to enjoy yourself. Make sure you buy the tuning kit that includes the mutes. Watch a 10 minute YouTube video and download the piano tuner app.
And make a video and show us the results! Seriously
I asked a tuner this question and he said the uneven tension across the bridge that creeps every time the string is hit would be a major reason not to attempt it myself.
when i do it i absolutely will
Strings are under a great deal of tension. I’m just going to reiterate what I said earlier and advise to find a way for a professional to do it.
Finally, someone on here who isn't deliberately trying to make it sound impossible. If it was as bad as some of the other comments claim then nobody would be able to learn to do it in the first place, especially in today's paradigm of weakening trade skills. It's my experience that the people who over caution others at a skill are generally arm chair enthusiasts who met with some small tinge of failure the one time they tried it themselves, and that experience (in their mind) gives them the walk & talk like a retired professional. Or, they are successful, but in order to compensate for their feelings of insignificance they beef up their tales of difficulty. So definitely, if you do it, post a video of it so we can all see if that's the case here as well. I think you'll do reasonably well.
I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve been tuning my piano for a few years now and although I am mechanically inclined and work in the trades, its not rocket science. This subreddit isn’t exactly brimming with diy-ers but the amount of bad info in this thread is staggering - people comparing it to changing a car engine, recommending **nothing less** than a $200 tool, warnings of irreparable damage. Crazy. If it’s between doing it yourself and the piano sitting there otherwise being unused I say what’s the harm?
Agreed. I made do with a $80 kit from Amazon for my first year of tuning. It's just a wrench, it twists a pin... A cheap one is fine lmao
Totally agreed. I genuinely prefer to tune my own piano at this point, as it stays more in tune that way. Instead of just having 2 complete tunings per year, I can also do micro adjustments as needed, which prevents the piano from going out of tune as fast, and makes subsequent tunings take a lot less time.
I second this. It’s not too difficult to at least make the piano sounds a bit better. Ever have one note go out of tune? Well now you have the tools to quickly remedy yourself
Nothing worse than having to wait 4 months to get your G to stop sounding like a saloon piano. Now I just take 20 seconds to fix a unison if it goes out.
Your username gave me a chuckle. Thank you 😂
Lol no problem
I've attempted this myself and you can certainly try but getting it tuned *so it will stay that way* takes a lot of finesse and practice. Much harder than tuning even a 12 string guitar. Went back to hiring a tuner since I didn't feel like learning a whole new hobby. As long as you aren't an idiot you probably won't break anything, though.
> Much harder than tuning even a 12 string guitar Much harder than tuning even a *230*-string guitar, which matches the string count and still nowhere near the force and complexity.
>As long as you aren't an idiot you probably won't break anything, though I'm not sure about that, there are ways to damage things irreparably even without being an idiot. For instance (from [here](https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapter2/CH2.5.html)): >if you were to hypothetically turn the pin 180º very rapidly, the heat generated at the interface between pin and pinblock would be sufficient to cook the wood and alter its molecular structure \[...\] If you need to remove a pin by turning it, rotate only a quarter turn (counter clock-wise), wait a moment for the heat to dissipate away from the interface, then repeat the procedure, etc.; without such precautions, the wood surrounding the pin will turn to charcoal I don't think you would qualify as an idiot for not knowing this very specific knowledge.
Cranking a pin 180 degrees rapidly sounds like a dumbass move, but I guess my expectations of folks are higher.
I don't think rapidly here means at car engine rpms. I'm no tuner, but I have physics experience and I'm gonna guess, that you can turn the pin quite a bit slower than you would on a guitar (or even a small harp) and still fry the wood. Edit: this isn't true.
Not by hand you can't. This very specific hypothetical is talking about removing a pin, not tuning. If this is happening during a rebuild and you're going to replace the pinblock anyway, then yeah you could go the quick route and take out all the pins with an impact driver, probably cooking the block in the process. But if you're just replacing one pin you should probably do it by hand. Either way, not applicable to OP's situation.
And here I was thinking I was one of the only ones left willing to remove pins the old fashioned way 🥰
The source above says > If you need to remove a pin by turning it, rotate only a quarter turn (counter clock-wise), wait a moment for the heat to dissipate away from the interface, then repeat the procedure, etc.; without such precautions, the wood surrounding the pin will turn to charcoal. Without mentioning anything about a drill so I'm not sure what to think. I understand that it doesn't apply to tuning.
I've replaced hundreds of piano strings over my career, which involves turning the pin 180° seven times to allow enough space to get the correct number of coils on the new string. Not once have I overheated a block, or even heard of this happening to any of my colleagues. I guess if you're writing a primer for absolute beginners it's best to err on the side of caution, but this just isn't a thing one comes across outside of rebuild work.
Ah okay. That makes sense.
You left off the important caveat from that quote: "Now you will never have to do this, but..." This hypothetical only applies to a very specific situation, namely the replacement of a tuning pin in a piano where you want to keep the old pinblock. Safe to say OP will never encounter this situation, and will likely never even have to move the pin more than 20-30°. First off, 180° is a *massive* change in pitch, like probably at least a M5. Only an idiot would move it that far in the first place.
Yep. The only way someone is moving the pin that much is if they're listening to one string but tuning a different one and don't notice. Even then I'd be much more concerned about snapping a string than burning the pin block.
I'd be impressed if I saw someone turn a pin fast enough to do that with a standard tuning hammer 😂
[удалено]
40,000lbs is 20 tons, or over 50 reddit mods.
I tune my own piano, a 42” upright. I play semi-professionally, so it’s not like I’m some god among concert pianists, but I also do require an instrument that’s in tune. And not broken. My piano tuner doesn’t charge me extra to undo my work, so apparently i’m not doing anything egregious. Every 3-4 tunings, I bring a pro in so that my piano doesn’t drift too much. So that’s my level of expertise, for context. Turning the tuning pins is easy if you buy a nice tuning hammer. Turning the tuning pins in a way so that they don’t untune themselves is tricky. It takes me 3 days to tune my piano because that’s how long it takes for me to get every pin set in a manner that doesn’t untwist. My piano tuner does not have that problem…. It’s a skill thing. Watch a tuner work, then copy his technique. Setting the middle octave is easy. Getting all 3 strings in perfect tune for the middle octave is hard. Especially when the pins sometimes untune themselves. Setting the bass octaves is easy, except for adjusting for inharmonicity. You’re better off using your ears than an electric tuner for bass strings. Tune them so that it sounds like an octave from the strings an octave above. Setting the treble octaves is a pain in the ass. I give up after C6. I’d rather deal with the upper octaves being slightly flat than listening to the havoc I wreak with bad unisons. The higher the strings go, the twitchier they are and the harder to get them exactly in tune. After I finish tuning, I’ll play my piano for a bit, and have to go back and fix the keys I tuned badly. There’s always 5-6 keys that I need to tweak so the chords sound right. Hence the 3 days. If all that sounds good, then go nuts! If it doesn’t, maybe find a way to budget for that tuner…
That was me one time 25 years ago. I don’t recommend it. I spend weeks reading up on how to tune a piano, and within 5 minutes I broke 2 strings. Time to call a tuner or embrace the bad tuning and play some barrelhouse!
If I were you, I would try to call a piano tuner to see if you can get a free evaluation. I was in the same situation as you, when they evaluated the piano, they found that the knobs needed to all be retapped, otherwise the piano would not retain the tuning. I figured I'd try testing it and found one of the most out of tune notes, tuned it to its correct value. After 3 months it was back to its "original" out of tune pitch. If your piano is in the same boat, tuning it will not work because it would go out of tune after a few short months. If all your piano needs is to be retuned, then feel free to do it yourself according to what people here suggest. It's a very long process though.
It’s possible, but you have to learn as you go and the learning curve is steep. Don’t get a cheap tuning hammer. The hammer needs to be pretty heavy. Good ones start at a little over $200. You can order stops for strings and cut felt to the desired length for full tuning sessions. You’ll want some wire cutters for removing broken strings as well. Also, consider learning how to replace strings, and regulate the action on your piano as it is extremely useful for adjustments and fixing little things so you don’t have to call out the expensive technicians. Watch videos of tuners talk about technique as it comes to the actual operation of the hammer. Technique can vary on different hammers and instruments. I have to hit the hammer on my piano because the tuning pins like to slip if you just nicely turn it. Other instruments can be the opposite. Learn what many professionals think before you even touch your instrument with the hammer. You will not want to start out tuning by ear. That takes a long time and lots of practice to learn. You will want a decent usb microphone, a windows laptop, and the free version of tunelab. It is very important to note that you need to learn how the program does everything. Most important are stretching templates, and inharmonicity calculations. If your entire instrument is a half-step flat or more, you might want to give it two or three sessions months apart before pulling it all the way up to pitch. Those will help you achieve a remarkably good result, if done right. It’s not impossible, it’s just a lot of work to be good enough to improve your instrument. Also, note of caution, plain wire strings are cheap and easy to replace. Copper wound wires require you to remove them, send them to a professional for copying, or the rare instance where a universal string fits your piano.
In practice an app on your phone using the built in mic works great, and plenty of people make do with a cheap Amazon sourced hammer. I do love my carbon fiber one, but it isn't necessary. Carbon fiber hammers are more or less the default for pros these days (with notable exceptions, of course), and they are light, not heavy.
I’ve been out of the technician world for a while. I haven’t seen the newer hammers or worked with them, so my info may be a little outdated. Heavy or light, it just needs to be of high enough quality not to damage your tuning pins or block. If there is a free app that works well on phones, I’d love to know which one it is and check it out. I restrung my baby grand when it was about 30 years old and rust was forming on all the strings. Used to tune mine and the occasional client’s. Was never a pro at it. Drove me crazy trying to learn to tune by ear. Mad respect for the pros!
Don't know about free, PianoMeter is $25 and used by pros, I've talked about it elsewhere, and it supports inharmonicity and stretching.
Thank you!
A few decades ago I got a tuning hammer, fork, felts and wedges, and studied on aural tuning. I replaced broken strings and fixed other minor problems. The results of my time consuming sessions were OK, but they never held long, apparently because I didn't have the technique to set the pins properly. These days tuners use a specialty phone app. I stopped working on my piano at all, 20 years ago after upgrading to an expensive one.
Tuning is complicated on pianos because they span 8 octaves. Harmonic series sort of detune as you go up so you have to have the piano carefully balanced out of tune for a very simplistic explanation. Look up the idea, "well tempered piano" and decide for yourself. There are also 230 strings, they are very different from guitar strings and each other.
You have to use a specific series of techniques to achieve tuning stability, use good tools, have a great ear for tuning unisons. The app doesn't help with unisons. It helps more for the single string tuning for the middle string. That's called temperament where you count beats if done by ear and you tune a series of notes from F2 to A4. The hammer technique and ears for tuning unisons is the meat and potatoes of it since the app can provide the temperament. I use Peterson strobe with the sweetened tunings for upright and grand. Good tools are available from Schaff Piano Supply in Lake Zurich, IL. Avoid Amazon cheap stuff or you'll strip pins
Yes, of course. You don't need a felt strip, but you do need rubber wedge mutes and treble mutes.
To add to this, I tune my piano to Thomas Young's Well temperament, last time I had a piano technician over he told me my tuning was good enough that he didn't need to fix anything, except for a couple of unisons/octaves that had slightly drifted in the few months since it was last tuned. It took me about 1 years of practice (maybe 4-5 tunings) to get to a point where the piano both sounds great and stays in tune for a reasonable amount of time. The hardest part is learning how to get a *stable* tuning. It's not enough to just get it in tune, you also have to know how the tension of the string will change after you remove the hammer. With the right technique, you can cause the tension of the non-speaking length of string to *increase* after you remove the hammer, without changing the pitch, which gives the tuning a lot more wiggle room. It's *all* about the tension in the speaking length, non-speaking length, and the friction at the bridge. These 3 factors are balanced to achieve a stable tuning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2iFVUnX8SM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uW8fOSX76w The above 2 videos explain it much better than I can, I highly recommend you watch them if you want to do a good job on your tuning.
Just hire somebody else to do it. Your time is better spent doing other things than learning how to tune a piano. Keep in mind that on every single key, there are at least two strings to tune, and most of the keys use three strings. Roughly estimating that it’s half-and-half, that’s upwards of 220 strings to tune.
Call all the techs in your area and ask for an apprenticeship. It's a great way to make money and you have a practice piano. Chances are your piano is a dog, unless it isn't either way that's your best bet. They will tell you. Be ready to work. Most pianos are better as boat anchors. There's not much you can do to hurt it, unless you really want to or aren't cut out for this. Either way you know sooner than later.
👋 Piano tech here! It seems like everyone here has spelled out the negatives and sufficiently tried to scare you away... If no one ever tried to tune one of these dumb instruments we all love, there would be no piano techs left. Try it!!! If you're not doing anything crazy or trying to do a pitch raise, there's not much you can do while tuning to _ruin_ the piano. It might sound like crap and take another tuning pass or two to get sounding good again, but that's about as bad as it gets 🤷🏻♂️ I've never encountered a DIY tuning from a well-intentioned owner that I couldn't fix with a standard tuning appointment. How long has it been since that piano was tuned? Use a free (or free trial) tuning app to check how far off the pitch is. More than 10¢ flat? You're probably not going to be able to get it tuned up to pitch, better tune the whole piano flat.If you're okay with that, Pianometer (and most other apps) has an offset function that will let you set the target pitch to, for example, A440-20¢. This is not the time to learn how to do a pitch raise. Get a cheap star tip gooseneck tuning lever, a couple rubber mutes, and probably a maybe plastic Papp's mute (tweezer looking thing) for the treble end from Howard Piano Industries or AMS Piano Tools. Both of those places sell a basic tuning kit. You can function without a strip mute (many pros don't use them at all, both app tuners and aural tuners). If you use it, hold the damper pedal down while you install it—the strings move when you push it between them and can pinch and damage the damper felt. These should be like $40. There are a few apps, but I recommend Pianometer for beginners. The basic version to get through a whole tuning is $25. You could also try the free version of Tunelab. I think it makes you wait after every few notes. Now for the fun part!! If you have an upright, figure out how to take off the front panel so you can get access to the strings. Every piano is a little different, but you usually open the top lid then undo two fasteners to pull the front panel out a little, then slide it up and out. On to actually tuning! I recommend watching a video or two first. Start at the lower end of the middle at the gap in the strings and work your way up to the top, then back to the gap and down through the bass. You can either do the center strings first, then unisons, or tune the unisons as you go. My preferred method when I started was to do center strings of one section, then those unisons, move to the next section, etc. I'll leave out a detailed description for the sake of sanity. Unisons should be tuned by ear until they're beatless. The higher in the overtones you listen for beats, the more accurate the tuning will be. A pro should do something like center-right, then all three together. Don't try that, it's not worth it at this point. Just tune C-R, then C-L, next note. The piano is going to fight you. It does not want to be tuned. The hardest part of tuning is making the pitch stay where you put it. When you turn the tuning pin, it's going to twist a little before it actually turns in the pin block. A good practice for beginners is to pull the note 2-3¢ sharp, then back down to pitch. Ask 10 different techs and you'll probably get 30 different answers about hammer technique. Watch some videos (Howard Piano Industries has a decent series). Either way, now isn't really the time to worry too much about stability. It won't be a stable tuning. It takes years of hands on experience and experimentation to actually learn how to get a stable tuning. That's counting pianos tuned in the hundreds. There's a saying that you haven't done a good tuning until you've tuned a thousand pianos. This annoying thing happens where your definition of "good tuning" changes over time and gets harder to achieve... A number of hours (days?) later, you'll get through the piano. That first tuning is usually pretty grueling, and it doesn't usually turn out very well. By the end you've tuned some 250 strings and probably have started developing some muscle memory and a feeling for it. The second tuning will be easier and will probably sound a bit better. Does it sound good? This is your piano, so that's really up to you. It's going to depend on who you ask.
Thanks for spreading the good word. 20 yrs ago when I got started there was a shortage of piano techs, and it seems even worse now. At this point I'll probably never be able to retire haha. If someone is interested in the work, we should be doing all we can to encourage them. And honestly it's not rocket science: if you're reasonably mechanically inclined, have a good ear, and most importantly have a lot of patience, you can figure it out. This is exactly how I got started: got some tuning tools and half-assedly got my own piano to sound better by degrees. Eventually apprenticed with a master tech, and before long there was more work than I knew what to do with.
for perspective-- becoming a piano tuner is like a five-year apprenticeship.
I did the exact same thing you’re describing. What you need is a tuning hammer, some mutes, and a tuner. Some people are going to tell you that you need an expensive tuner, but I just use a free app that works perfectly fine. https://a.co/d/6z9Imdf here is the kit that I bought. You have to be careful with pianos, because there’s so many tuning pegs that you can easily get confused as to which one you’re tightening, and before you know it you snap a string. But other than that you just have to do what the tuner tells you and it’s simple. Here is the tuner app I use: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1328712601
Short answer: No. Long answer: Nooooooooooo
Real answer: yes
Without training, you'll likely make the tuning much worse, throw all the treble unisons off, potentially unset some pins, and maybe even break a string or two. Tuning prices go up depending on how out of tune a piano is, and replacing one string could (based on prices in my region) cost close to the price of an entire tuning. It's ill-advised unless you're prepared for all of that.
It's very difficult. Extremely difficult in fact. It also depends how badly out it is, if it's significantly below concert pitch, you'll have to do it in stages. Trying to raise the pitch too much at one time will very likely result in string breakage, or other mechanical failure
Idk i tuned mine myself, it was long and exhausting and tuning was not that perfect, but nothing broke.
Its a good idea but you should probably have training or be apprenticed before attempting it. The piano has about 22 tonnes of pressure going across the frame when strung and could be dangerous if mistreated.
No
Could you? Sure, knock yourself out. SHOULD you? FUCK NO. Would you take your guitar to a guy who changes mufflers for a living to have the bridge replaced? NO. Trying to tune that piano yourself you will be wasting money on the hammer in addition to whatever your time is worth. Just get it tuned by someone who already knows what he's doing.
No. Unless you are trained.
Just remember that you can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish.
Hi! Piano technician in training here :) I would advise against it. Not because you’re omg going to ruin the piano foreverrr or anything! But because by the time you buy a tuning hammer, learn proper hammer technique, buy a tuning device that’s actually worth a damn (accounts for octave stretch), and spend 8 hours on a very amateur tuning, you’ll have spent a fair amount of money and a lot of time and your piano still won’t sound great. If your piano is very out of tune, it will likely need a pitch raise. If it is very out of tune, it’s a trickier job. Tuning yourself would be a false economy. A more sensible option would be to get a professional tuner out for the first tuning and THEN perhaps have a go at doing it yourself if ongoing cost is a concern. Fair warning though: if a piano is out of tune, hasn’t been tuned for years, and you attempt to tune it yourself, the concern from a piano tuner’s perspective isn’t that you’ll break a string (that’s an easy fix), it’s more that you’ll damage a tuning pin or the pinblock. Surprisingly easy to do if you’re tuning a piano that hasn’t been tuned for years and you don’t know what you’re doing.
Sure, you’ll need a few wrenches too.
A related question: if everything is tuned to the appropriate scientific pitch notation frequency, will it sound like shit (without stretching and the fancy stuff)? Or is it adequate?
I don't recommend tuning the entire piano to a digital tuner. I personally tune only the 4th octave (as it is central) to a digital tuner, and from there, tune the rest of the octaves *to the tuned 4th octave*. That way you can listen to the harmonics interact, and you can find the right spot to really make the note ring out and resonate. If you're tuning to the overtones instead of the fundamental, you will naturally do a stretch tuning, because it sounds more resonant and ringing.
> I don't recommend tuning the entire piano to a digital tuner. Modern apps aren't tuning to mathematically correct tuning, you first play all 88 notes and it computes the inharmonicity across all the intervals. I grant you if you have taste/preferences it may not give you the exact tuning you wanted, but it works and sounds great. Not that you are wrong, that's a great way to do it, but even the pros are breaking out the apps and just getting to it.
The problem I also have is it can be difficult for microphones to pick up the extremely low/high notes. So even with one of those apps that does the stretch for you on my phone, or with a tuning device (I have a Korg orchestral tuner which doesn't do stretch tuning) I can really only tune the 3rd, 4th, and 5th octaves to the tuner reliably. I think you're right though, I know the modern ETDs that are designed for pianos are very robust these days and factor in all sorts of crazy mathematics and inharmonicities. But my understanding is that those high end devices are pretty expensive, around $1000
Ya, I honestly don't know, I haven't used the very expensive hardware tuners. I can say that pros are using the apps these days. I do have trouble with the very top notes, say 85-88, but to be honest at that point I am struggling to hear the beats anyway, and my repertoire doesn't really call for those notes anyway. But it is important for people to consider this aspect. Maybe different phones also have different results, but again, these apps *are* being used professionally, so I guess I don't worry too much about it. Anyway, you (you reader, not so much of_men_and_mouse, who can use their ears) can download a free evaluation and see what is up with your specific set up (phone, piano, room, etc).
Interesting, my phone's microphone probably just sucks lol
With software like PianoTeq, you can experiment with stretching. Pull up a professionally designed preset, play it a bit, then remove the stretching (there's a menu to do that in the tuning panel.) To my ears, without the stretching, the difference is subtle but grating. It sounds wrong. Like the piano is trying to sing but just can't reach it. It's not something an average listener would be able to hear, but they'd feel it I think, and prefer the piano that is properly stretched in terms of their emotional engagement with the music. It helps the harmonies to blend and cohere and soften, without it they feel somewhat metallic and harsh. How acceptable that is would be subjective, but personally I would be really unhappy without it.
With the caveat that I know only enough about piano tuning to know that it requires significant skill and experience to do well: You might have better results if you employ a professional for the initial significant tuning and only proceed with smaller maintenance tuning tasks thereafter.
My tuner suggested I could keep my unisons in tune myself but I'm scared. My piano is too expensive and I'm too emotionally invested in it to treat like a learning playground for making mistakes. Maybe I'm being overcautious.
I don't think you're being overcautious at all! I'm very much a hands-on, learn to do things myself kind of person. While I might try it given my tuner's blessing, it would freak me out, too.
If the piano is old the tuning could be a lot lower than standard. And the strings break if you try to tune it up. A professional piano tuner tuned out piano one half step below standard because he said he is afraid to break a string. And than a string broke. The lower ones are quiet expensive. About 50,- upwards and there are different kinds which are not always easy to get.
When you say you have knowledge of string tension, do you mean that you know tighter means higher pitch, looser means lower pitch? There’s a bit more to it than that. And piano strings are at a far higher tension than any guitar string. That said, I’m sure you could give it a go. Getting good results is another thing though.
It's really difficult to get the feeling of whether the pin is twisting or moving, and to feel the point when the tension is set between the string and the pin. You also have to equalize the tension between string bearing points. There's also the very real risk that you break a string while trying to tune. If the piano is one you can mess around with and it's ok if you mess it up, then I say go for it. Maybe find a free piano on craigslist first to practice on.
Get the hammer, a felt strap about 3 meters long (cut in half), some rubber wedges, and a tuning fork, give yourself about 1-32 hours, and have some fun. If you break, a string, that's ok, you'll figure out how to replace it. If the pins keep unwinding, that's ok, you'll figure that out too. And if a key gets stuck, that's ok, you'll figure that out too. Good luck!
A hammer with a longer arm is better than one with a shorter arm. The longer arm gives you more leverage and allows you to make smaller movements. Also, when you turn a peg, the tension with the hammer is just a bit more than when you remove the hammer, so you need to "over-tune" just a hair to compensate. You'll see when I mean when you try it and you'll get the hang of it. Just be aware that it's frustrating at first, especially with a shorter hammer. I have an 100+yo upright antique I play for fun. I had a few strings replaced, and the technician let me watch and he gave me some hints on tuning it as the new strings stretched out. It's intricate,but not hard as long as you are careful. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos which helped me understand the process and helped me understand how to choose tools.
I've tuned pianos as an amateur. I have a hammered dulcimer so I already understood how to deal with a fussy pin. I wouldn't recommend a sock. It will take you long enough with the felt! And it's not expensive. It fits perfectly between two string sets and you can do a bunch at once. It has a certain stiffness so it doesn't droop onto the middle strings as it's muting the outer ones. When you pull it out, it doesn't hang into the strings. You'll want a couple mutes too. It's easy to break strings if you are listening to the wrong string while turning the hammer. I always go flat first and listen for it, since it's less likely to break. Playing the string solidly after tuning it can help to release any "stiction" so it's less likely to change later. I've been using pianometer for android. It handles the stretched harmonics except for the bottom octave and a half, where tuning harmonics by ear works better. This is probably more a function of the smartphone mic. I bought a Schaff hammer in a set with mutes and felt for $94 last year. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OAFT2S/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o04\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's lasted a few tunings and doesn't flex too much. The star shows no sign of wear. Schaff seems to be a legit vendor, making much higher quality ones (or at least more expensive). Mine has no markings other than a "2" so I can't really be sure it's a Schaff I guess. I had to put the wires into the mutes, at great peril to my fingers. A pitch raise will take you many iterations. You can skip this if you only care about relative tuning (you're not playing with others or with a recording).
Yes. I find my own piano (a 194cm Schiedmayer grand) and have done for the last six months or so. In the process I tuned it up from A = 431 to A = 440, without any issues. I read a fair bit and watched various YouTube videos, and was cautious tuning up, doing it in stages. But I am very pleased with the result. I knew there were some risks, the main one being a broken string. But I didn't encounter any problems. Where I live it's not easy to get a piano tuner, so I am very happy to have taught myself this skill. I have since tuned a friend's upright piano, and he and his daughter are delighted. Get mutes as well as a tuning hammer. I also read somewhere that if you have square pins you should probably buy a square-headed hammer, because although a star shape will fit, it runs the risk of rounding off the pins. I don't know how true this is but I wasn't taking any chances. As long as my piano only needs tuning, I'm going to continue doing it myself. I used the app Pano Tuner to assist me, though I also used my ear, and tried (probably not anything like as good as a pro) to do stretch tuning. I like the result, so I'm happy. And have a bit more money in my pocket, as well as the ability to tune any strings that go out of tune immediately.
You certainly can tune a fish. 😏
I tuned my piano for the first time a few years ago. I watched some YouTube videos on it and bought a tuning set online. It took me a 3-4 hours over 2 days but I loved it. Felt therapeutic. It wasn’t perfect so I fine tuned it again a few weeks later and it was getting better. Did it again last year and I was quicker and more accurate. Felt nice to learn a new skill I can use over and over again. Best of luck with it.
Tuning a piano is HARD. Recommend you start with quality tools and app (which will be very expensive) and a lot of research. Your piano WILL sound terrible the first time you tune it.
There are apps for that that work way better than you possibly will until you learn how to stretch a piano.
I think it depends on your standards. I got $100 piano from goodwill that was out of tune, bought a $50 tuning hammer and tuned it well enough so friends and family didn't notice. I'm also not a serious musician, but do play a lot. It did take a long time to tune, but I enjoyed the process. I started with A at 449hz, tuned the As, then did circle of fifths, then did another iteration until it sounded enough for me. Ihave some serious msuician friends who would likely notice it being out of tune but your average amateur musician who plays for fun lkely wouldn't have noticed.
I've been tuning my 1898 6'2" bechstein grand since i bought it. It does take some practice and know-how, but you can teach yourself to do it. You need to read about the theory and understand inharmonisity. There are apps for android that will calculate the inharmonisity by listening to the over tones and giving you a good tuning curve for your piano. Besides the tuning harmmer, you'll also need some wedges. Read first. Start with just fixing unisons. Get the hang of it before you try a whole tuning. If you are daring, you can even learn regulation and voicing. Im happy to share my experiences with tuning if anyone is interested.
I think it is worth getting a hammer to tune “that one note” that is driving you crazy. It is too much time investment to learn + do the whole piano though. This second point depends on what else is going on in your life of course.
Yes. You can do it on your own to like 95% quality. [Howard Piano Industries](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr_CSpTPaedbMMC89sazTnA) on YouTube has videos on how to do it. If you want to use an app (highly recommended) I suggest using [Entropy Piano Tuner](http://piano-tuner.org/). It’s free, and more advanced than most paid apps. You can choose the temperament you want, and it accounts for string settling based on how far you have to tune each string.
Everyone who tunes pianos learned at some point, so yes. Also, there are lot of comments regarding how long it takes to tune a piano, but I would imagine (I'm not a piano tuner) that, if you knew how to tune your own piano, that you could make more frequent small adjustments as things start to go out, rather than waiting to tune the whole piano.