Piano Servicing

Grantham Piano Services offering piano servicing, restoration and repair.
A family company, established in 1972.

Piano Servicing, Restoration and Repair

John from Grantham Piano Services is highly experienced with a wide knowledge in piano servicing, restoration and repair. John will assess the problem and give a firm quote once he has had time to gauge the issues.

He is able to work on any make and carry out all aspects of action work and servicing, repair, rebuilding, overhauling and regulating. He has many years of experience in all aspects of piano action work including action preparation for concert work and voicing.

A piano can bring you and your family a lifetime of music, adding immeasurable joy to your home. Since it is also such a large investment, it should be maintained with the utmost care. Regular servicing will preserve your instrument and help you avoid costly repairs in the future.

Strings of a Steinway Piano

Restringing a Piano

John prides himself on the quality of his restringing work. Wrest planks (tuning planks) can be replaced. Frames are re-painted. Any soundboard cracks are repaired and re-varnished. Pianos are strung in the best quality German piano wire and tuned to concert pitch. He has restrung many hundreds of pianos and is pleased to say that it’s still good fun!

Hand repairing piano hammer

A Piano Service

John offers a service depending on what needs to be done. It is carried out onsite and involves cleaning the instrument inside, removing string marks on the hammers, decreasing friction on moving parts and much more. The time required does depend on the type of piano and its condition.

Piano restoration tools on grand piano

Piano Regulation

This is the adjustment, alignment and matching up parts of the mechanism (action & keys) pedals and strings. Minor regulation is part of a full service. However, if the piano has seen a lot of use or not been serviced/regulated for a long time, then a major regulation is required. As felts, leathers and baizes wear down through use, the action will need adjustment to compensate for this.

Piano Restoration

The restoration process can be split into three sections:

  1. The Structural Restoration This is the restoration of the main chassis of the piano. It covers the strings, the soundboard, the bridges and the frame. The strings on the piano need to be replaced every 75 years or so (this isn’t a fixed time, it depends on surroundings). When the strings are replaced the tuning pins would generally be replaced as well, giving the piano many more years of tuning stability and improved tonality.
  2. Action and Key Restoration This is a huge area to cover. The piano action has something in the order of 6,500 parts to it and 3,500 parts of that are moving! There are several thousand felts and baize and springs and braids and leathers and all of them wear out. Sometimes, a piano will require just a small run through involving fine changes to regulation or tonal improvement, to the other extreme where an instrument requires a full rebuilding of the action, this is obviously quite major work. Or sometimes it just requires somewhere in between. I can advise you on all aspects of action restoration to improve your piano, by all means call to get some advice, or I can visit you to advise the best course of action on your action! (Apologies for the pun)
  3. Casework Restoration: This involves the beautifying of your piano. It is quite an undertaking! In days gone by we used to do all sorts of finishing types including cellulose finishing, but these past few years I have specialised completely in hand French Polishing which gives the piano a deep, lustrous finish, completely in keeping with the original style of piano polishing that the pianos used to have. I have re-polished many hundreds of pianos and it is by far the most satisfying part of the whole process of piano restoration as customers are normally genuinely shocked at how gorgeous their piano now looks once it is done. The process takes many weeks and involves a complete strip down of the old finish, back to the original bare veneer, hand sanding and preparation, filling of all dents and scratches, staining and finally the gradual build up of coats and coats of French Polish. This work is always carried out in a workshop, you don’t want paint stripper in your lounge!

Piano Care & Advice

So you have bought your new piano, do you know how to care for it? Where to place it in your home? When it might need tuning or servicing? Or do you want help buying your first or next stage piano? We share our advice and tips with you, built over many years’ experience.

Woman playing the piano
Tuning a piano
John tuning a grand piano
Piano restoration
Tools for tuning a piano

Get in Touch

Address

Based in Yelverton, Devon