Questions people actually ask

Once a year for a piano in normal home use. Twice a year is better, and it is what most manufacturers actually recommend: one tuning after the heating season, one after the humid part of summer.

A new piano needs more: three or four tunings in the first year while the strings stretch and settle. Pianos in schools, churches, and teaching studios generally want two to four a year depending on how hard they are played.

Because humidity moves it, not playing. The soundboard is wood, it takes on moisture in humid weather and gives it up in dry weather, and its crown rises and falls accordingly. That changes string tension across the whole instrument.

This is why an untouched piano in a spare room still drifts, and it is why Nebraska is harder on pianos than a lot of the country. Our indoor air goes from very dry with the furnace running in January to genuinely humid in July. Playing wears a piano out; weather is what puts it out of tune.

Why Nebraska is especially hard on pianos, and what actually helps →

I charge a flat $165 for a standard tuning, with no travel fee inside 15 miles of La Vista. A piano that has drifted well below pitch needs pitch-correction passes at $55 each, which in practice means most neglected pianos land between $220 and $275.

The full breakdown, including repair labour and travel, is on the pricing page.

When a piano sits untuned for years it settles well below A440. Bringing twenty-odd tons of string tension back up changes the load on the frame and soundboard, and everything you just tuned moves as you go. Tune it once and it will be out again almost immediately.

So the fix is done in stages: one or more fast rough passes to get the overall tension roughly right, then a fine tuning on top of a stable structure. It is extra work in the same visit, which is why it costs more, and skipping it is a false economy.

Usually not. Most pianos in that state come back with pitch correction and a fine tuning, and sound dramatically better the same afternoon.

What I want to check first is the pinblock and the strings. If the tuning pins no longer hold, or the strings have rusted to the point of breaking as they come up to tension, that is a different and more expensive conversation. I will tell you which one you are in before I start work, not after.

Ninety minutes to two hours for a standard tuning. Add roughly half an hour per pitch-correction pass. Repairs depend entirely on what is wrong, and I will give you a time and a cost before I begin.

Someone over eighteen should be in the house, but you do not need to sit and listen. Get on with your day. I just need the room reasonably quiet and the piano accessible. Tuning is done by ear as much as by device, so a television or a loud conversation nearby genuinely does make the work harder.

Wait two to four weeks. It is not the move that puts a piano out (pianos travel better than people expect), it is acclimatising to the humidity of the new room. Tune it the day it arrives and you pay to tune it again a month later.

The exception is a piano that has come from genuinely different conditions, such as a long spell in storage or a garage. Call me and describe it; I will tell you how long to leave it.

Inside wall, away from heating and cooling vents, out of direct sunlight, and not next to a fireplace or an exterior door. Those are all sources of rapid humidity and temperature swings, and every one of them shortens how long your tuning lasts.

If the only spot in your house happens to be an exterior wall, that is not a catastrophe. A few inches of clearance and a humidity control system will handle it.

Yes, and it is one of the most common calls I get. Sticking keys come from swollen wood, worn bushings, broken springs, or something small that has fallen down between the keys. Coins and pencils are perennial favourites. Most are fixed on the spot, and if you are having a tuning anyway it is often a few minutes of extra work.

Let me look at it first. A pre-purchase evaluation is $95 and I check the pinblock, soundboard, bridges, strings, action, and tuning stability, then give you a written summary and a plain recommendation.

Be especially careful with free pianos. Moving one costs real money, and a free piano that needs restringing is a considerably more expensive object than a good used one you paid for.

It is the Piano Technicians Guild credential, and it is the only recognised standard in what is otherwise a completely unregulated trade. Earning it means passing written, tuning, and technical examinations administered by the Guild and assessed by working technicians.

Anyone at all may advertise as a piano tuner tomorrow. An RPT has had the claim tested by people qualified to judge it.