Piano Tuning Contact
Call 07709 956118 or 01708 343347 for advice and appointment.
Or email: davidbohea58@gmail.com
Over 40 years experience at piano tuning, repairs and regulations.
My name is David Bohea, I provide a piano tuning, repair and regulating service in Essex, North London and Hertfordshire. I have been a piano tuner for just over 40 years, ever since I left school.
I was probably one of the last people to be taught in the old fashioned way, in a piano restoration workshop, by skilled old time factory men. Starting from the bottom up I learnt every aspect of the trade: tuning, regulating, all action work, restringing and complete restorations, on all types of pianos. I have done contract work for lots of piano firms over the years and have tuned for several big names in the world of music, among them the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in concert on several occasions. I work to a high standard and offer a personal, friendly and reliable service.
I am happy to discuss requirements with you and provide quotes for non-standard work.
Please call me on the number above or use the “contact me” menu to send me an email.
How often does a piano need tuning?
We usually recommend that pianos are tuned every six months. This is because piano
soundboards, bridges, and rest planks (tuning planks) are all made of wood, which expands and contracts with changes in temperature between summer and winter, when the central heating goes on and off.
Older pianos may need tuning more often, because the tuning pins tend to become looser with age. Modern pianos are not quite so affected by this as they have laminated tuning planks.
Why do pianos need regulating?
There are hundreds of moving parts inside a piano, that make it play. This is known as the action. For a piano to play at its best all these parts need to be correctly adjusted. This is what is known as regulating. If a piano action isn’t correctly adjusted it can make it quite difficult to play. One of the most common symptoms is the hammers double beating on the strings, especially when played lightly. This is very annoying and also makes the piano difficult to tune.
The second most common symptom is the notes jamming up when you try to repeat them quickly, which makes it very difficult to play fast pieces of music. Pianos go out of adjustment due to sinkage in felts and leathers with constant use. In some cases it is just because they were never regulated properly when they left the factory from new.
This applies mostly to pianos of more modern manufacture, especially pianos made in the Far East and Eastern Europe. I have done work for lots of piano retailers over the years where i have spent all day just regulating brand new pianos. Regulating can be tricky unless you really know what you’re doing.
The piano text books will tell you to adjust a piano action to a certain set of measurements. However, many pianos won’t play properly when adjusted to these text book measurements due to the way that their action was made and set up. I have often been called out to a new customer who has had a piano regulated elsewhere with no improvement, as the regulator had just applied these text book measurements which was wrong for that piano. It is all about understanding exactly how a piano action works and adjusting it to where it needs to be to get the best performance from it. This is something
that only comes from years of experience in a piano workshop working on all types of pianos. They don’t need regulating anywhere near as often as tuning, but depending on the amount of use they get it is well worth having them regulated once in a while to keep them in good playing order.
Feel free to check out my reviews or contact me using the online form.
Your friendly, affordable piano tuning service