We all know that musically, as well as for the health of the piano, that it is recommended to have your piano tuned regularly. So, you say…tell me something I don’t know! OK
I recently read the following story, told by a well-known piano technician of an experience of his, which serves as an important reminder of “other” reasons to have your piano serviced regularly. It seems that having their piano tuned could would have likely saved this couple many thousands of dollars.
I was called to a very fancy house in a very rich subdivision, (Old money rich), to tune a small grand in the formal sitting room. In addition to tuning, which they admitted hadn’t been done for a couple of years, they asked me to fix a few sticking keys in the 3rd octave. When I pulled the action, I found a dead, and mostly decomposed, black bird, between the tenor and bass hammers. These birds are about 10″ long, and how it got in there is anyone’s guess.
But that’s not the funny part of the story. When I showed the dead bird to the customer she let out a big yelp. She told me that for over a year there was a very bad odor coming from that room, and in order to get rid of the smell, they had the ducts completely cleaned, replaced the carpets and the drapes, painted the room, and replaced all of the furniture. By the time they did all that, the smell was mostly gone, but only because the bird had decomposed. Considering the quality of the carpets, etc, and the size of the room, it must have cost them close to $15,000. They only got the piano tuned and repaired because they were planning a big party, and someone was going to play it.
I guess this is another good reason to get the piano tuned once a year, even when no one is playing it.
