As your piano tuner Wilmington DE, I am often asked about some of the more common piano repairs that a piano technician performs. In the last article, I discussed loose tuning pins. In this article I will discuss water damage to a piano. Many piano owners do not allow drinks to be placed on a piano, and I recommend that to all piano owners. Any kind of flavored drink will leave a colored stain, but even water can do a tremendous amount of damage to a piano.
The first place to discuss is the piano action. This is the mechanical part of the piano from the keys to the piano hammers which hit the strings. The piano action is typically made of wood, felt, and buckskin, although some high-end pianos are now made of plastic instead of wood. They still have the felt and buckskin, however. The tolerances on a piano action are very small, so even a small change in the shape of the wood will create a problem. For example, when water is spilled on the keys of a piano, the keys can warp and twist, so that when you attempt to play one piano key, three or four go down together, since they are all touching each other.
In a car, or some other type of object, you could simply buy four new parts to replace the twisted ones. In a piano, you cannot order new keys. Every piano is unique, and there are no replacement keys for a piano. Usually, the keys will straighten at least somewhat when they dry out, but there are cases where the entire piano must be replaced when an entire keyboard full of keys is still twisted after drying.
Another case would be if liquid gets spilled on some felt parts that are glued to the wooden action pieces. The result can be the breaking of glue joints, or damage to the felt that would then require replacement. This typically does not require replacement of the whole piano, but it can get very expensive. Prevention is a much better course. Simply asking people to place drinks away from the piano can save you an enormous problem.
If you have other questions about Delaware piano tuning, piano maintenance, or piano repairs please give us a call. We at Kenneth Keith Piano services are your Wilmington DE piano tuning experts. We also provide professional piano services Philadelphia, Eastern Shore MD and Southern NJ.
