Ron Berry Piano Service

Found this picture of a building in China.

The Piano House, Located in Huainan City, China, A Hui Provence

The building was built for music lovers and acts as a Performance and Practising place for Music students from the local College in Huainan City

There are somewhere around 230 strings in a piano. They range from a speaking length of only 2″ to 7 feet or more. In the low bass there is only one string per note. Then in the upper bass, 2 strings per note. In the middle and treble there are 3 strings per note. This is to balance out the loudness of each area. The upper strings are plain steel wire. Although they all look alike, there are many sizes of plain wire that are only .001 inch different. In the bass section, the strings have copper windings around them to make them heavier so they will vibrate more slowly. The lowest notes can have 2 layers of copper to make them large without making them too stiff.

Tuning a piano involves adjusting every string. I first get one of the strings in the right relation to notes around it, and then tune the unison to match the other two strings to the one already tuned.

Piano wire is probably the strongest material in your house. It is very difficult to make it hard and strong enough without it becoming brittle and breaking easily.

Thank you to all my wonderful customers and for another great year of business for us. Best wishes for a very prosperous New Year to all.

Thank you to all my wonderful customers for a successful year. I hope you all have a wonderful day with loved ones.

The temperature has dropped and the heat is on. This lowers the humidity indoors and makes pianos drop in pitch. In Indianapolis and surrounding area call now to schedule a tuning before the Christmas rush is on us. December is always a busy month for me. I try my best to work everyone in before Christmas but make plans now to assure that.

This 10 minute video from “How it’s Made” goes to the Mason & Hamlin factory and shows the process.

A short article about measured brain changes among piano tuners.

Strings on a piano break sometimes just as they do on other string instruments. One repair that can be done is to splice the string back together with a tuners knot. This is often a better repair than replacing the string because it can be done immediately. Bass strings have to be made to order for each piano so that takes time. Also a spliced string settles back down to tuning stability quicker than a new string does.

I know it seems strange to picture tying a knot in piano wire but this can be done and creates a good repair.

A happy day to all in spite of the heat. I’m truly grateful that I have been able to be self employed for 40 years in this business. I’m so grateful to live in a country where I have the right and ability to be in business for myself.

Found these pictures on the net. Looks like there is some major work to be done. I thought I would include these for a laugh. The upper picture doesn’t look so hopeless. But the square grand!!