TuningRepair.Com

 714-636-3122

 Piano tuner, movers, restorers 

Orange County &  Los Angeles

Welcome to Leo's

Perfect Pitch

PIANO TUNING

Quality tuning far above the field

 

TUNING MENU

 

TOUCH UP TUNING Tuning the piano once to fix some bad notes.  It is assumed that the piano is at standard pitch. Recommended only for regularly tuned pianos.           PITCH RAISE TUNING   Tuning the piano twice.  The first tuning is to raise it to standard pitch, and the second tuning to fine tune it.  Recommended for new pianos or for old pianos that have not been tuned in over a year.     Perfect Pitch Tuning  Top caliber tuning.  The piano is tuned three times and strings, hammers, and dampers are realigned to produce a full tone.  This a precision tuning that will dramatically improve the clarity & resonance of your piano, guaranteeing your piano to sound in Perfect Pitch.  Your trebles won't sound dull anymore; it'll sound alive and bright with clarity.  Your midrange chords will ring out harmoniously like a fresh bouquet of flowers.   Click below to listen to a sample of Leo's tuning:   (Video taken on 4-8-07 after grand piano tuning & repairs at J.Staub in Newport Beach, CA)

WHY LEO'S TUNING IS SPECIAL

Leo guarantees you  Perfect Pitch Tuning .

Only a handful of piano tuners truly understand the art of piano tuning. Any tuner can tune your piano but few can tune it in perfect pitch. 

Piano tuners do not tune alike.  That's a myth.  There are poor tunings and quality tunings.   Some people wash your dishes but leave a soapy film but when I wash your dishes it would sparkle. 

Poor tuners generally will make your piano sound too sharp in the treble area and too flat in the bass area.    Tuning by machine is also undependable because every piano is constructed differently and tuning to preset mathematical frequency sounds awful. 

Best tuners tune by ear.

I have had to retune a lot of pianos from poor tunings from other tuners.  

My special secret tuning technique evolved from years of tuning. It is unique and, it is, as many of my clients would say, the "most perfect" tuning they've ever heard.

My passionate search for excellence in tuning came out of having studied under two of the nation's top tuners, the nationally renowned dean of American piano tuners, Virgil Smith, and the  Chief technician of the Chicago Piano technician Guild, Nick Kircher, both in Chicago, IL.   Professional piano tuners across the country have adopted Virgil Smith's tuning method, a method which he had slowly formulated from over 50 years of tuning.  These include tuners for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra,  the Juilliard School of Music, Indiana University School of Music, the Curtis Music Institute, and others.

Please click testimonials to read the comments from my happy customers.   

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QUESTIONS ABOUT PIANO TUNING

 

How often should I tune my piano? The National Piano Foundation, The Piano Institute, and the National Piano Technician Guild, Baldwin, Kawai, Steinway & Sons, Yamaha, Wurlitzer, and most other piano manufacturers all recommend the following: Every performance for pianos in concert / recording Every week for pianos in clubs, hotels, restaurants. Every 3 months for new pianos Every 4 months for old pianos Every 6 months for storage pianos     Is tuning by machine accurate? No.  Electronic tuning is like painting by numbers. Anyone can tune electronically without really knowing how to tune! A tuning machine is a general guide only.  Fine adjustment tunings must always be done by ear.  Tuning by machine is a lazy man's way to tuning.  A lot of incompetent tuners hide behind these machines.  Tuning by machine, particularly by cheap ones, can actually produce false results.   Tuners uses the machine for fast and quick tuning jobs, particularly to clients who can't tell the difference in tunings.  Tuning takes years of experience to develop.  It is often said that a tuner will only start to understand how to tune pianos only after having tuned 1000 pianos.  Ear tuners  develop their tuning skill under guidance of a master tuner.   Tuners learning to tune on their own via a tuning machine, wouldn't have a clue. Whether a professional tuner uses the aid of a tuning machine or not, he must be able to tune by ear and recognize correct pitch.  Pianos are all constructed differently, with different string sizes and length, so each tuning is unique.  Machines can't tell the enormous differences in sound characteristics between a grand and a spinet piano.   Only professional tuners trained by ear are able to hear these incrementally minute stretches of differences.     Why does pianos go out of tune? The most frequently cited factor for pianos going out of tune is humidity and temperature. In general, pianos will go out of tune whether played or not.   Heavy playing will affect the tuning also but to a much, much lesser degree than humidity. Humidity and temperature are the two principal factors, thus pianos in humid coastal areas and in the hot dry inland areas are most susceptible. Excess humidity makes the piano go sharp; excess dryness makes the piano go flat. These processes can be happening simultaneously in your piano, resulting in uneven pitch from octave to octave.   In the winter months, pianos go flat because piano wood dries from dry heat from home furnaces.  In the spring months, pianos go sharp because piano wood expands as it absorbs higher humidity.  These seasonal changes in tuning are often most obvious in the mid-range of the piano. Below is a cycle chart of piano wood contraction and expansion due to changing humidity levels throughout a year.     Has the bass really gone out of tune? One of the most common complaints we hear from customers is  "The bass has gone out of tune." What usually happens is that the pitch remains more stable in the bass section because of heavier strings. The mid-range fluctuates more dramatically, where the strings cross the middle of the soundboard. This unevenness is perceived as the bass being "out of tune".      Does moving make a piano go out of tune? No. When you move, it is not so much the transportation of the piano that throws the tuning out as much as the piano acclimating to its new room environment.   If the piano is moved from one room to another probably not, but to another address more than likely it will need a brush-up tuning at least.  Be informed that when your piano is at  proper tension/A440/correct sound there is an incredible amount of pressure on the structure of the piano.  Lift it, move it, pick it up and twirl it in the air if you're that strong, but Do Not jar it.  What knocks a piano out of tune with moving is receiving sudden impact.  Things like bumping walls, dropping even a fraction of an inch to the floor when being set down, running rough shod over a speed bump or railroad track when moving a piano are all the kinds of things that will affect the tuning adversely.  It is actually possible, though extremely rare, to move a piano and have the tuning remain stable.  Remember this.  The tuning pins that hold the piano wire tension are being held in a block of (hard rock maple or birch) wood typically with about 45-85 lbs. of  torque ( the amount the wood is 'squeezing' the pin ).  The piano wire tension is around 200 lbs.   Jarring or sudden impact will cause the pin to move or twist releasing some of the wire tension, and the pitch of that wire will fall. I usually recommend a few weeks minimum to as much as three months to wait before tuning again after a move.  Reputable piano dealerships will recommend the same on new piano purchases and I'd advise you to ask for this with your warranty tuning.      What is tuning by A440? The standard pitch reference in the US is the note A (above middle C on the piano) tuned to 440 hz from a tuning fork (see picture).   The rest of the world, concert pitch varies from A435 to A445.  At this pitch, power and tonal range are optimum and your piano will match the pitch of other instruments. When your piano varies from A-440, pitch adjustments are required to bring it back to standard. By always maintaining your piano at standard pitch, you create long-term tuning stability because the strings and structure stay in equilibrium. You also ensure proper ear training because you always hear your music in the correct key.     Why, if a piano hasn't been tuned in years, does it take multiple tunings to reach and hold its pitch?    To raise up to A440 standard pitch, the 230 some wires in your piano have to be retrained to adjust to the new level of tensions.   The combined string tension in a piano is between 15 and 30 tons,  which is enough to hoist a 2-car garage.  Taking into account the tremendous amount of tension at A440, a standard pitch raise may have changed the overall tension by as much as 4 or 5 tons (8-10,000 lbs., no joke) of force or tension.  The piano has to stabilize or re-acclimate itself to the new tension of A440.  Some instruments will need more consecutive tunings than others, and factors such as age, overall stability of the piano and its environment will affect this fact.  For more info on tuning, please see expert care.   TOP

 

The Perfect Pitch Piano Tuner 

Leo 714-636-3122  

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"Life is like a piano... what you get out of it depends on how you play it.” --anonymous

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