Hi,

My piano was last tuned 14 months ago at a440. The a4 is still at 440 now according to my app, and the piano still sounds good to me. I'd say it's a bit out of tune, but maybe it's just in my head, because I just can't believe a piano can stay optimally tuned for so long, especially since I play it often. Granted, I took extreme care of the home humidity level, but I'm sure that can only do so much.
To the tuners here, is it common for you to be called to tune a piano only to realize that it's still at a440 and is still in tune enough that you have to tell the client that there's no tuning to be done yet?

Yes, I've had my own tunings last that long and longer. Is every note perfect, not even needing a tweak? No, but the old "good enough for gov't work" would apply for sure!

There is a vast difference between still sounds ok to you and being in optimal tune. Can a piano stay in optimal time for 14 months, no.
Ask yourself why concert and recording pianos will be retuned between every session. That is how long they stay in optimal tune. For the average home situation, after say about 2 weeks some movement, perhaps not enough to even be noticed by the player, will have occurred.

Sydney Australia
Retired part-time piano technician

I worked under a tech at a Steinway dealership for a few years. He did most of the concert work but occasionally had me doing stuff to help him out.

One thing I remember that he tried to drill into me was that when I went to do a "concert tuning", that I needed to spend some time figuring out what did NOT need to be retuned. Often, it was a big part of the piano that needed to be just left alone. He insisted that if the piano had bounced down the road in the big truck, been set up on a stage, beat on for a rehearsal or two, and still had notes that were in tune, DO NOT TOUCH THEM! If something needed touched up, typically a few unisons, do that. But when something is in tune and obviously stable, don't mess with it. That was his message to me. Probably somewhat dependent upon the context.

More specifically to your question, though, the humidity control probably has way more to do with your tuning stability than you give it credit for. I once had a regular tuning in a church where the sanctuary was totally interior and very tightly controlled in temperature and humidity 24/7/365. I didn't really want the job at the time but took it on because of several people who came before and their tunings just were not holding. So they asked me to have a look. I did a careful tuning and ended up looking after that piano for several years following (until we moved away from the area). It was extremely stable. I'd have a look about every 3 months or so and there were quite a few times when all I would do would be touch up a few unisions and call it good for another 3 months. Seriously, I felt like that was a case of "if it's not broke don't fix it." And it served me well in that situation. It was rare, I can't recall any other situation that dramatically stable, but it does happen.

So I made a recording of a sample to show the tuning of my piano. Here is the part that sounds more out of tune than the rest, to my humble ears. (Apologies for the bad attempt at a piano version of Rameau, and the loud background rumble, I'm still figuring out how to record properly.)

If you're a tuner and I called you to tune my piano , and you heard this clip (all limitations considered), would you accept to come and tune it?
The reason I'm asking this, and part of the reason I made this thread, is that I had a bad experience in the past, where I called a tuner to come tune my piano and he said it was not out of tune enough!

I'm not a tuner, but maybe you are very sensitive to sound. I think it's strange that a tuner says it's not out of tune enough. The tuner doesn't have to like the tuning as it is, it's your piano. Is it possible to ask a concert technician to tune your piano? Or to ask around at concert halls who their tuner is?

None of us can tell you with any degree of value or certainty (without being there but even then ...?). Pianos start going out of tune the moment the tuner strikes the keys to check the tuning they just did, it just depends how picky you are and if you can perceive the difference. What sounds off to me in that recording is the temperment.

The only solution is for you to hire a different tuner next time, then see what you think. If you like how it comes out, stick with that person. If you don't, then it's you and go back to the first one if that's who you want.

11 days later

My 2¢: I occasionally find a piano in such good condition (usually on a return appointment after a couple years of regular tunings) that tuning it again would be a waste of time. In this case, I will often touch up what needs touching up, and then use the rest of the time that the client hired me for to work on other things like regulation and voicing. I let the client what I'm doing and why. This feels more honest to me than going through the motions of tuning a piano that doesn't really need tuning.

From what I could hear in your recording, your piano sounds in tune to me. If it were my own piano I wouldn't bother tuning it yet. That's cool that you're able to control humidity so well.

Anthony Willey
PianoMeter – Piano Tuner