Can you provide guidance on acquiring a used piano?
Yes, here is our Piano Buying Guide:
Why do old pianos sound so different from new pianos?
There are five main factors that contribute to the “old piano sound”:
1) Worn action parts
2) Compacted felt on the hammers
3) Dried out, warped, or cracked soundboard wood
4) Loose tuning pins
5) Fatigued and non-elastic strings with false beats and wave interference
Please avoid these pianos:
1) A piano with action problems.
Don’t take on a piano that has repair issues with the keys you will be playing, such as sluggish and sticking keys! This means that the piano has not been maintained and played on a regular basis. The problem is probably not fixable, and action issues like this are always likely to get worse and will appear on other keys. Some repair parts for a particular piano may not be available at all. Also, the repair cost could be very high, more than the value of the piano. You want a piano that has been maintained, with all the keys working properly. The only exceptions are the bottom five notes and top five notes, which you may never use. They typically seize up from prolonged lack of use.
2) A piano that is old and may be near the end of its useful life.
You don’t want an old piano if you can help it, because piano actions wear out and can get very noisy. Strings wear out too, and bass notes can sound thumpy without producing a clear tone. Worst of all, most old pianos have loose tuning pins. When a piano has loose tuning pins, the notes will go out of tune much sooner than they should. When the tuning pins are very loose, the piano may not hold the tuning at all. Old pianos with loose tuning pins are ready for piano heaven. You want as recent a vintage as you can find.
3) A piano that hasn’t been tuned in many decades.
That means the pitch has probably dropped dramatically below A-440. Bringing it back up to the standard of A-440 may break a lot of strings, and so it will need to be tuned at its current pitch. If the placement of the pitch is of importance to you, it’s a very good idea to check the pitch with a portable electronic tuner.
4) Never buy a piano with mold or mildew. These issues cannot be fully removed and will continue to spread. Mildew, in fact, is a type of mold. Its odor can make playing the piano an unpleasant experience. Worse, inhaling mold spores can impact the respiratory system, affecting the nose, throat, and lungs. Spores can also settle on and irritate the skin or cause rashes, especially if there are small cuts or breaks. When mold spores come into contact with the eyes, they can cause irritation, infections, or other symptoms—and potentially enter the bloodstream.
Every piano is unique in its sound and action touch. Try out pianos until you find one you are really happy with. If you can’t decide between two pianos, go with the newer one.
Purchasing a used piano from a dealer is usually preferable to buying from a private party because a reputable dealer will provide a warranty.
How Old Should a Used Piano Be When You Buy It?
When purchasing a used piano, age plays a key role in its condition and performance. While pianos can last 75 to 125 years with proper care, their usability and reliability can vary significantly with age. Here’s a quick guide:
Under 30 Years Old:
For the best reliability, aim for a piano less than 30 years old. Instruments in this range are less likely to have major issues like loose tuning pins or worn hammers, making them a safer investment.
30 to 40 Years Old:
A well-maintained piano in this range can still perform well but may require more frequent maintenance. Always check its service history to ensure it has been cared for.
40 to 60 Years Old:
The condition of pianos in this age group depends heavily on brand, usage, and upkeep. Higher-quality brands that have been lightly used may still deliver good performance but could require part replacements, such as strings or hammers.
Over 60 Years Old:
Pianos over 60 years old often face significant wear, such as string oxidation or sluggish action, and may not be worth the cost unless they are premium instruments with exceptional maintenance records.
How long do pianos last?
75 to 100 years.
After 100 years, most pianos are ready for piano heaven. Rebuilt pianos will last much longer. If you keep rebuilding a piano as it ages, it will last indefinitely.
Normally, a piano lasts as long as its pinblock can hold the tuning pins tight, and as long as the action parts have not deteriorated.
Steinway states on their website that pinblocks last 40 to 70 years. As decades pass, the wood dries out. This pulls the wood away from holding the pins tight. A piano with loose tuning pins is unable to hold a tuning. When a Steinway piano is rebuilt, the pinblock is always replaced with a new one.
The industry standard for replacing piano strings is every 40 years. After 40 years, the bass strings can sound tubby, and the tone deteriorates in the rest of the strings. The noisiness of old strings is obvious in a tuning meter.
How soon after moving a piano can I have it tuned?
We recommend waiting at least ten days before tuning to allow time for acclimation to the new environment if the piano is being moved from a similar climate.
If the piano is being moved from a completely different climate, it’s best to wait three to four weeks before tuning it.
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What is Inharmonicity?
Inharmonicity refers to the natural sharpness of a piano string’s overtones compared to its fundamental pitch. This phenomenon occurs because real piano strings are not perfectly flexible; their stiffness causes the harmonics (or overtones) to deviate slightly from their theoretical frequencies.
When a note is played, its overtones—higher-pitched vibrations that accompany the fundamental tone—are sharper by approximately 5 to 20 cents (a cent is 1/100th of the distance between two adjacent piano keys). This deviation makes the string slightly “out of tune” with itself and is most noticeable in the highest and lowest ranges of the piano.
The Role of String Stiffness
Inharmonicity arises because real piano strings are thick and stiff. Ideally, a string’s overtones should align perfectly with the fundamental pitch. However, stiffness causes higher overtones to vibrate at frequencies slightly above their ideal values. The effect is more pronounced in short or thick strings, such as those in the treble and bass registers, where the deviations are most significant.
Why Stretch Tuning is Necessary
If a piano were tuned strictly to perfect mathematical ratios (e.g., octaves tuned to a precise 2:1 frequency ratio), the inharmonicity of the strings would cause overtones to clash, producing an unnatural and dissonant sound. To prevent this, piano tuners apply stretch tuning, a method that adjusts the tuning of octaves slightly beyond their theoretical intervals:
- Treble register: Octaves are stretched sharper to compensate for the naturally sharp overtones.
- Bass register: Octaves are stretched flatter to align with the slightly flattened overtones in this range.
This careful adjustment ensures the harmonics of notes blend smoothly, resulting in a richer, more unified tone across the piano.
How Stretch Tuning Compensates for Inharmonicity
Human hearing perceives pitch differently at extreme frequencies, and inharmonicity alters our perception of a piano’s tone. By stretching octaves, piano tuners align the perceived pitch of each note’s harmonics, ensuring that the entire instrument sounds harmonious.
For example:
- High notes: The perceived pitch is influenced more by sharp overtones than the fundamental, so raising their tuning makes them sound correct.
- Low notes: The fundamental pitch is slightly flattened by string stiffness, so lowering the tuning balances the sound.
Without stretch tuning, the harmonics of the bass and treble notes would clash with the middle register, creating discordant intervals.
The Railsback Curve
In 1938, O.L. Railsback analyzed the tuning practices of piano tuners and discovered a consistent pattern: most tuners stretched the treble sharp and the bass flat. This observation led to the creation of the Railsback Curve, a graph showing how real-world piano tunings deviate from theoretical ideals.
This research confirmed the necessity of stretch tuning and laid the foundation for modern techniques. For more information, the Railsback Curve is detailed on its Wikipedia page.
Modern Tools for Precision
Today, advanced electronic devices like the Sanderson AccuTuner can measure the inharmonicity of individual strings and calculate an ideal stretch tuning. These tools allow tuners to achieve a beautifully unified sound tailored to each piano’s unique string properties.
The Outcome
Stretch tuning embraces the piano’s natural inharmonicity, ensuring a harmonious and pleasing sound across all octaves. While it deviates from mathematical perfection, this method aligns with human perception, allowing the instrument to produce its fullest, most resonant tone. This technique is critical for both concert-level instruments and everyday pianos, ensuring they achieve their maximum musical potential.
Understanding the Railsback Curve: A Deeper Look at Piano Tuning
The Railsback Curve illustrates how piano tuners adjust octaves to compensate for inharmonicity—the natural sharpness of higher overtones in piano strings. This technique, known as stretch tuning, ensures a harmonious sound across the entire keyboard. The result is a piano that sounds rich and balanced, with each note resonating in tune with the others.
This graph shows the slight adjustments made to the pitch of the highest and lowest notes, which are slightly sharpened or flattened to create a more unified tone. Although not mathematically perfect, this method produces the pleasing sound you hear in every well-tuned piano.
What is Equal Temperament?
Equal Temperament is a tuning system that divides each octave into 12 equal parts, ensuring the piano can be played in all keys. While this method introduces slight imperfections in individual intervals, it provides a practical balance, allowing versatility across all key signatures.
The Challenge of Fixed Pitches
Unlike instruments such as violins or guitars, where players can adjust pitch in real time, the piano has fixed notes. If a piano were tuned with mathematically “pure” intervals—like perfect fifths (3:2 ratio) or major thirds (5:4 ratio)—it would sound perfectly in tune in one key but discordant in others.
This issue arises because musical intervals are based on simple frequency ratios that align harmoniously in one scale but diverge as you move to others. Over the 12 keys of the chromatic scale, these discrepancies accumulate, leading to noticeable tuning conflicts between notes.
The Equal Temperament Solution
Equal Temperament resolves this problem by slightly adjusting each interval so that all keys are equally playable. Instead of tuning based on pure ratios, this system spaces each semitone—the distance between adjacent keys—equally across the octave. This adjustment ensures no key is perfectly in tune but allows all keys to sound acceptably consonant.
- Major thirds: Slightly sharp compared to pure tuning.
- Perfect fifths: Slightly flat compared to pure tuning.
These small compromises make the piano uniquely versatile, enabling it to accommodate complex, key-changing compositions without sounding dissonant.
The Science Behind Equal Temperament
The mathematical basis of Equal Temperament divides the octave into 12 intervals, each separated by the twelfth root of two (approximately 1.05946). This formula ensures that the frequency of each note is proportional to the previous one, creating equal spacing between pitches.
For example:
- Starting from a note at 440 Hz (A4), the next semitone (A♯4/B♭4) is approximately 466.16 Hz.
- Each successive note is multiplied by 1.05946, culminating in 880 Hz (A5), which is exactly double the starting frequency.
This even distribution eliminates the “wolf intervals” found in older tuning systems, where certain notes were so out of tune they were said to howl.
Historical Context
Equal Temperament was developed independently in Europe and China during the 16th century to solve the tuning challenges of fixed-pitch instruments like the harpsichord and piano. Prior systems, known as historical temperaments, worked well in specific keys but rendered others unusable.
The development of Equal Temperament marked a turning point in music, enabling composers to explore modulations and key changes freely. Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier exemplifies this innovation, showcasing music written in all 24 major and minor keys.
Why It Works
The genius of Equal Temperament lies in its balance. By distributing imperfections evenly across all keys, it ensures that no interval is perfectly pure, but the overall effect is harmonious. For instance:
- Thirds are slightly sharp.
- Fifths are slightly flat.
This uniform imperfection creates a cohesive sound where the piano is “in tune with itself,” a practical necessity for fixed-pitch instruments.
The Result
Equal Temperament enables the piano to achieve a unique tonal richness. While it sacrifices mathematical precision, it offers unparalleled musical versatility, making it possible to play compositions in any key with consistent harmony.
Without Equal Temperament, the modern piano repertoire—including intricate works that modulate through multiple keys—would not be possible. This tuning system is a cornerstone of Western music, enabling both composers and performers to fully explore the instrument’s expressive potential.
Curious about what the experts recommend? Piano Price Point has a fun article on tuning frequency: How Often Should I Tune My Piano?
What is voicing a piano?
Voicing is the process of adjusting the hammers to achieve a desired tonal quality. A piano that hasn’t been voiced properly might sound thin, harsh, or lack depth and richness. A device with three sharp needles is used to soften piano hammers, which are made of felt. Doing this helps modulate a harsh tone. There are hardening liquids for hammers, to give a brighter sound.
If you buy a piano but it sounds different in your home, the piano store can have their technician voice the piano to improve the sound in its new location.
How many parts are in a piano?
About 12,800 parts.
There are around 100 moving parts associated with each key in a piano. This is called the action.
So a piano with 88 keys will have 8,800 moving parts in the action alone.
Considering other components, we can estimate the total number of parts in a piano:
Action Parts: 8,800
A reasonable estimate is around 4,000 additional parts:
Strings: 220-240, each with a tuning pin
Pedals: 2 or 3
Soundboard
Frame (including the rim, lid prop, legs, etc.)
Dampers: 88 (one per note)
Bridges and agraffes (which help transmit string vibrations)
8,800 action parts + 4,000 other parts = 12,800 total parts
Therefore, a typical piano has a total of about 12,800 parts.
If there are 8,800 action parts in a piano, how many of those parts can be made of plastic before the sound quality deteriorates?
There’s no definitive number of plastic parts that can be used in a piano before sound quality deteriorates. The impact of plastic parts on piano sound quality depends on several factors:
Location and function of the parts: Some plastic components have minimal impact on sound, while others are crucial. For example, plastic action parts may have less effect than plastic used in the soundboard or bridge.
Quality and type of plastic: Advanced composite materials can sometimes outperform traditional materials in certain applications.
Design and manufacturing precision: Well-designed and precisely manufactured plastic parts can perform better than poorly made wooden parts.
Combination with other materials: The overall design and how plastic parts interact with traditional materials is crucial.
Some piano manufacturers have successfully incorporated plastic parts without compromising sound quality too much:
Kawai has been using ABS-Carbon action parts in some models since the 1970s, claiming improved durability and consistency. (ABS-Carbon, or acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene-carbon, is a material that combines acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, ABS, with carbon fibers. The carbon fibers make ABS-Carbon stronger, lighter, and more rigid than standard ABS. It’s often used in 3D printing.)
Mason & Hamlin, through their subsidiary Wessell, Nickel & Gross, has developed high-tech composite action parts aimed at improving performance rather than reducing costs.
Early attempts to use plastic in the 1940s and 1950s were less successful, with parts becoming brittle over time.
The key is not the number of plastic parts, but their quality, placement, and design. Modern pianos can incorporate numerous plastic components without necessarily deteriorating sound quality. However, critical components like the soundboard, bridges, and strings are still typically made of traditional materials to maintain acoustic properties.
It’s worth noting that some pianists and technicians (like me) remain skeptical of plastic parts, associating them with lower quality instruments and poor or deadened sound quality. However, this perception is changing as high-end manufacturers successfully integrate advanced composites into their designs.
It seems like the main problem is that plastic does not resonate the way wood does. True?
Yes. The resonance properties of plastic compared to wood are a significant factor in piano construction and sound quality.
Resonance characteristics:
Wood has natural resonance properties that contribute to the rich, warm tones of a piano.
Plastic generally lacks the same resonance characteristics, which can result in a less complex and “deader” sound.
Vibration transmission:
Wood efficiently transmits vibrations, which is crucial for sound production and sustain in a piano.
Plastic tends to absorb vibrations more than transmit them, potentially dampening the sound.
Harmonic complexity:
The cellular structure of wood contributes to its ability to produce and enhance harmonics.
Plastic, being more homogeneous, doesn’t contribute to harmonic richness in the same way.
Aging and sound maturation:
Wood can improve acoustically over time, contributing to the “breaking in” of an instrument.
Plastic doesn’t change its acoustic properties significantly with age.
Customization and adjustment:
Wood can be shaped, sanded, and adjusted by piano technicians to fine-tune the instrument’s sound.
Plastic parts are generally less amenable to such adjustments.
However, some modern composite materials are designed to mimic wood’s acoustic properties more closely.
In non-resonating parts of the piano (like action components), well-designed plastic parts can perform fairly well without negatively impacting sound too much.
The use of plastic in certain components can provide consistency and durability that might be beneficial in some contexts.
In conclusion, the resonance properties of wood are far superior to plastic for sound-critical components in a piano. This is why, even in pianos that incorporate some plastic parts, key sound-producing elements like the soundboard, bridge, and rim are still predominantly made of wood in high-quality instruments. My experience has been that plastic parts usually make the sound worse.
Do you recommend humidity control devices inside a piano?
No.
An electric heating bar inside a piano is designed to drive away excess moisture. The problem is that these devices dry out a piano too much. When the pinblock dries out, the wood pulls away from the tuning pins and they loosen. A piano with loose tuning pins can’t hold a tuning very well. I recently tuned a nice Yamaha upright in which a drying bar had been used a lot, and every single tuning pin was loose.
If the glue in a piano dries out too much, the piano will split apart along the seams. I once tuned an overly dried-out upright in which the entire back of the piano had splintered away from the front.
The devices that add moisture inside a piano during the dry winter months are worse. They distribute water vapor unevenly, so one side of the interior will have a baby thunderstorm, and the other side will remain dry. They add way too much moisture. Also, they always need maintenance. I tuned a beautiful Kawai upright that had water stains everywhere on the inside from one of those overactive contraptions. The outside of the piano looked perfect.
So, I always advise unplugging these devices if you have one. These devices are used to upsell customers and make more money. To me, one of the wonderful things about an acoustic piano is that you don’t to ever have to plug it in!
Just keep your piano room comfortable for humans, and your piano will thrive. The organic materials in a piano, wood and felt, do best at normal room temperature and humidity. That includes using room air conditioning, room dehumidifiers, and room humidifiers whenever you feel like improving your own comfort level.
How can we prepare for a piano tuning?
If possible, provide a quiet environment so that we can do our best work. External noise makes it hard to hear the piano strings for fine tuning. We appreciate your not running the dishwasher, vacuum, or laundry machines, or having any other noisy home services done at the same time.
All objects on top of the piano will need to be removed so that the technician can open the piano for access to the tuning pins.
In most upright pianos, the tuner will prop up the lid and remove the front board for access to the tuning pins; grand pianos will be opened and the music desk removed.
Good lighting will help you play better, and it aids in tuning as well.
How can you tell if a piano is out of tune?
You can tell if a piano is out of tune if some of the notes sound twangy or buzzy, or if the piano produces a wavering or wobbling tone.
To test if a piano is out of tune, you can try playing a simple scale. Start at middle C and play all the white notes until you hit the next C. If a note is particularly twangy, that note is out of tune.
Most notes above the bass section in a piano have three identical strings, and they must be tuned in unison with each other. When certain unisons are out of tune, there will be a wavering or twangy sound instead of a steady single tone. This wavering will distort the note creating an uncomfortable sound that may hurt your ears. The note will sound wrong if you play it along with other notes in a chord.
Why do pianos go out of tune so often?
All of the pianos strings are attached to the wooden soundboard, and humidity changes make the board shrink or expand. When the board expands, it stretches the strings and makes them go sharp. When the board shrinks, the strings relax and go flat. However, each string goes flat at a different rate, causing the piano to sound out of tune. So, every time we have a thunderstorm, all of our pianos go out of tune a little. After enough periods of high humidity, the dissonance becomes more noticeable and the piano sounds harsh. Also, the action of the hammers hitting the strings throws them out of tune.
Average indoor winter humidity is around 30%, spring humidity is around 50%, and summer humidity is around 70%.
New pianos may need to be tuned more often because the new strings are still stretching. At a piano factory, new pianos are tuned up to 10 times before shipping to showrooms to compensate for the inevitable stretching of strings.
Institutional pianos that are used for concerts need to be tuned the day before and the day of a concert. This is because these institutions are not heated or air conditioned at night, and the wide temperature fluctuations throw a piano out of tune quickly. Also, concert pianists are rightfully exacting that their performance instrument be as close to perfect tuning as possible.
What can I do to maintain my piano?
The lowest and highest five keys don’t get played very much, so try to play those notes on a regular basis. Lack of playing makes piano actions degrade over time and is the main cause of sticking keys. Have it tuned once or twice a year, and play the entire keyboard on a regular basis to keep the action parts working smoothly.
How can I clean my piano exterior?
Most pianos just need light dusting. The finish is soft and scratches easily, so use caution.
To remove stains, use a soft flannel cloth just slightly dampened with water, followed immediately with a dry flannel cloth to pick up any residual moisture. Soft flannel cloth is the best material to use because the surface has been combed to raise soft fibers. Other fabrics have exposed weaves, which are abrasive on the soft finishes of pianos and automobiles. Always wipe lightly, and always in straight lines following the wood grain. Never wipe with a circular motion, because circular swirl marks will appear. This phenomenon is obvious on many cars.
A thin application of a high-quality carnauba wax is safe for most piano finishes. Carnauba waxes need to be lightly buffed with soft flannel immediately, before the wax dries. Therefore, just do a small section at a time, in straight lines. Never use cleaning products that contain water or other fluids, because they will penetrate to the wood and disrupt the finish over time. Never use old t-shirts because the weave is abrasive and will leave swirl marks or scratches.
Professional furniture refinishers can usually repair bad exterior stains.
How can I clean my piano interior?
Piano soundboard sweepers are available online. Be sure to wrap it with soft flannel cloth.
What are False Beats?
Old piano strings degrade over time, becoming brittle with an altered tone. When you pluck a piano string, it makes sound by vibrating side-to-side. It also has waves or pulses of vibration that travel from one end of the string to the other end, and back again. These end-to-end vibrations are more noticeable in old strings, and they are called False Beats.
When two waves of false beats meet while traveling along the string, that phenomena is known as Wave Interference. It interferes with the sound of a string, and it interferes with piano tuning meters. It also makes unison strings sound different from each other within the same note.
If your piano has a poor tonal quality, that is probably the main reason. There are two types of Wave Interference: Constructive Interference, which increases the sound volume, and Destructive Interference, which causes a decrease in the sound volume or total silence.
We recently tuned a two-string note on a 1910 upright piano, and the false beats in the two strings interacted in a way that caused the perfectly tuned note to go in and out of total silence repeatedly when you played it. Amazingly, the sound waves were totally canceling each other out. It’s the same principle as noise-canceling techniques used in headphones and automobiles.
What’s a Pitch Raise?
It’s a preliminary tuning of the entire keyboard to bring strings to their correct tension levels in a piano that is very out of tune or needs to be brought up to concert pitch. This ensures that the second and final tuning will be stable.
Piano Moving
Distance and the number of stairs will determine the price of moving a piano. The piano movers we recommend specialize in pianos, and are bonded and insured. Please contact us with information about what you need.
Repair Prices
Repair and piano string replacement prices are at the technician’s discretion. We always try to charge a reasonable price for repairs. The action in your piano may need to be removed and brought to a repair shop. Please include phone number, location, and the condition of the piano with your request for a quote.
© 2024 Tom Dans/Piano Island
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