Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1883 — HOW PIANOS ARE INJURED. [ARTICLE]

HOW PIANOS ARE INJURED.

There are more pianos injured by improper tuning than by legitimate use and the consequent natural wear of the instruments. The frame of a good piano, fully strung and tuned, is made to resist a tension equal to about eight* een tons. This severe strain relaxes as the strings recede from pitch, but is renewed when the piano is tuned, and it is frequently discovered, as a result of this revealed process, that the frame is bent or bellied; at the hands of a tuner lacking judgment, an instrument of this stage is soon injured beyond remedy. With reasonable use, a piano is expected to remain in good condition for seven years, and the best makers will so guarantee their instruments; but the incompetence of some tuners injures thousands of intruments in a few years.

In tuning a piano the correct method is to begin in the center of the instrument, on middle C. Yet many tuners when leaving middle C, instead of going down the scale and tuning the lower notes first—thus immediately bringing the greatest tension to bear upon the frame, and forming a solid foundation upon which to operate—will go up the scale, beginning with the highest notes, leaving the bass strings until the last, with the invariable result that, when the tuning of the lower portion of the piano is completed, the upper octaves are decidedly away from pitch. Every time a piano is tuned in this manner it increases the liability of bending the frame, and renders the instrument more difficult to tune and keep in tone. Many tuners do not carefully note the condition of a piano, and adapt- their treatment to the circumstances of the. case with full knowledge that a bent, weakened, or very old frame will not stand the extreme tension or sustain the strings at the high pitch which can be put upon and borne by a frame and wires which have never been injured through ignorance or neglect and bear no special marks of time or use. There are very few pianos, even those of the best description, that will stand at concert pitch. Were the matter generally understood by the owners of the pianos, they would consider it greatly to their interest to have their instruments tuned by persons in’whose hands there is the least possibility of accident or injury.