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The troubadour Kristian   *   Serenades    *    Piano   and   Harp  -   Tuning  and  Repair
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* According to many researches playing the false instrument causes many negative effects reciprocally to the benefits of the good music to the hole body and mind of the listener, i.e. Playing of exquisite music is a Great Gift to the piano players and their Brains too.)
False tune causes the player to get nervous and this irritation spreads among the other relatives and neighbours through the walls or directly :) And this could be a good criteria if you ask yourself when to call the piano tuner.

* Theoretically, a piano is to be tuned after every change in the climatic air conditions since the wood changes with them, hence the pressure of the strings (which have very different lengths) is not the same anymore. The results of wood dilatation differ to different strings (long or short) and the earlier that expansion is caught, the cheaper the tuning process will be. If just several strings are loose - the rest are capable to keep the tension, but with any other loose string the burden goes larger and soon it results in the "dominoes effect".

Do you see a moth around the piano - hang up inside the piano appropriate odor against moths and let the home spider go webbing in it because the eaten felt, cotton and wool parts are very expensive in Euro.
IMPORTANT!!!
If any part is broken, please find it and keep it (with all the broken particles) so that the precise size and shape is seen and measured and even maybe repaired without the very expensive catalog import from far and away abroad.
Details in musical instruments are not standardized as the car spare parts and differ very much even in the models of one and the same firm, company or manufacturer.
Please, do not allow other tuners to increase the pitch over A=441Hz. Find info about the damages following higher tensions of the strings, pins, bridge, sound board and so on. It is a predestination of a huge expensive rebuilding YOU have to pay later. Let the tuner sign a civil liability. More about why not A=440 and which one of 432, 435, 438, 441HZ (forget about 444 :)) to choose, please, find in the net or start here: In the 19th century, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi tried to stop the increase in pitch to which orchestras were tuned. In 1874 he wrote his Requiem using the official French standard diapason normal pitch of A4 tuned to 435 Hz. Later, he indicated that 432 Hz would be slightly better for orchestras.[8] One solution he proposed was scientific pitch. He had little success.[8][9]; or Choose alone by comparing sounds so that You determine whether A=432 is brighter, more melodic, and clearer than the standard 440 Hz!
Here are some sample pictures without disassembling the piano, just lift the top cover and never put flowers on it:
Bass hammerheads are on the left side Tenor hammerheads are in the middle Descant hammerheads are on the right side
Bass hammerheads Tenor hammerheads are in the middle Descant hammerheads are on the right side
Cracks in the wood at the base of the tuning pins are critical - they can not hold the torsion tension of the strings :(
All Bass hammerheads Left Bass hammerheads Right Bass hammerheads

Would you like to see how this amazing action works? Click on these pictures to see each one on full screen and again to zoom it.
Animation of Hammer action Hammer action closely Hammer butt out of action Jack flange English names of piano action elements

And sometimes there are some very old piano actions like "Bird cage piano action" (as in the following pictures) called so, due to the many similar wires for lifting the upper dampers, which are at the top at the beginning of the strings - where they work worse and some echoes sound regularly :( ; over the hammers and hide them hindering the access to their heads and to the strings if we try to mute them while tuning :(

old piano actions Bird cage1)> <a target='_blank' href= old piano actions Bird cage2)> <a target='_blank' href= very old piano actions like
bird cage piano action2 Bass hammer heads of an old burd cage piano Descant hammer heads of an old burd cage piano
Here is a short video 3 min with Explanations in English about the ancient form of key mechanics with upper dampers and the difficulties arising from it.

If you wish to hear or read more about this or other topics: call or write! Contacs
* Thank you for reading all of this with a special serenade :)   Riddle Song "What are those winter fireflies indeed?" by Kristian Simeonov (music and lyrics); Live Record singing with Alexandra Grancharova; slide show by L.B
Eee you soon! :)

* * * /!\ A New and incredibly surprising evil: Can you imagine that someone will go secretly to someone's piano with the scissors and cut ALL those little bridle straps on both sides, top and bottom, to make cripple all keys/hammers from returning once played?! And repairing each one is at least 7-8 minutes at the best efficiency and asked for minimal cost for which my engineering skills are capable of. And there are 88 keys... i.e. about 704 min., according to my bigger daughter who calculates these things gladly, i.e. about 12 hours pure Sisyphus work!
The Evil cut of all bridle straps The cheapest way my engineering skills are capable of