Piano Tuner Vero Beach

My tuning fee is $145 if your piano has been tuned to standard pitch within the past two years.

If it has been longer than two years, your piano has probably fallen below pitch and will need additional work before a tuning will hold. Call me at 772-610-3700 with a rough idea of how long it has been, and I will explain your options and the cost before I come out.

Twice a year for most pianos in Florida homes.

Most manufacturers recommend tuning at least twice a year, and Florida's humidity makes that recommendation more important here than in a drier climate. A piano used for teaching, recording or daily practice often benefits from three or four visits a year.

A pitch raise is a corrective pass that brings a piano which has dropped flat back up to standard pitch, A440, so that a fine tuning can hold.

Your piano likely needs one if it has gone more than two years without tuning. As tension falls across all the strings, the piano settles at the lower load. Tuning each string directly to pitch changes the total tension so much that the strings set first go flat again before the job is finished. The first pass therefore overshoots deliberately, and a second pass fine-tunes.

Yes. Humidity change is the main reason pianos here go out of tune faster than the same instrument would elsewhere.

The soundboard is wood under tension, and it swells and shrinks as the moisture in the room changes. Over years, that movement can loosen tuning pins and stress glue joints, and coastal salt air adds corrosion on strings and pins. Keeping the room reasonably stable, and keeping the piano away from air conditioning vents and direct sun, does more good than anything else an owner can control.

A Registered Piano Technician, or RPT, has passed a series of rigorous examinations given by the Piano Technicians Guild on the tuning, repair and maintenance of pianos. Fewer than 3,500 technicians in the world hold this title.

The field of piano technology is not government regulated, so anyone may advertise as a piano tuner. The Guild established the RPT examinations in order to ensure quality service to the public.

About an hour and a half for a piano that has been in regular service.

A piano needing a pitch raise takes longer, often two to three hours, because it requires more than one pass. If I find a repair or an adjustment worth making while I am there, I will tell you what it is and what it costs, and you decide.

Almost never. Most neglected pianos can be brought back to standard pitch and played with pleasure again.

A piano that has sat for a decade will need a pitch raise, and sometimes a follow-up visit a few weeks later once the strings have settled at the new tension. Very old instruments occasionally break a string during the process, and I will tell you beforehand if I think yours is a candidate. Call me with the brand, the age and roughly how long it has been, and I can usually predict what your piano will need.

Yes. I provide in-home piano tuning and repair in Vero Beach, Sebastian, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie.

Vero Beach is my principal location and where most of my work is. If you are outside that area, please call anyway — if I cannot help you, I will tell you who can.

Yes. I highly recommend the evaluation of every instrument prior to purchase.

Pianos vary widely in quality and condition for the same price, and many need costly repairs or maintenance that are not obvious to the untrained eye or ear. I also offer free advice over the phone that can save you time and money while you are still looking.

Action regulation is the adjustment of the mechanical parts of your piano, and there are over a dozen adjustments per note.

These adjustments restore the correct tolerances that were set when your piano was new but which gradually changed over the years with use. Frequently, relatively inexpensive adjustments make an enormous difference in the sensitivity of touch, allowing you to play much more expressively. My job is to recommend which of them will make the greatest improvement with the least expense.

Voicing is the adjustment of the tone of a piano, accomplished by making careful changes to the shape and density of the hammers.

If your piano sounds harsh and brittle, or dull and lifeless, voicing rather than tuning is usually the answer. A properly voiced instrument can sound remarkably more beautiful. It is the most difficult skill for a tuner to learn and typically takes years to master.

Yes, and usually during the same visit as your tuning.

In addition to tuning, I carry enough tools and supplies to repair most broken parts in a single visit for a reasonable price. Sticking keys, silent notes, broken strings, buzzing and unresponsive pedals are all common. In Florida, sticking keys are often a humidity problem rather than a broken part.

Clear anything sitting on top of the piano, and give me a reasonably quiet house for about ninety minutes.

Tuning is done by listening, so televisions and vacuum cleaners make the work harder. I will need to open the piano, so a little clearance around it helps. There is nothing you need to do to the instrument itself.