There are a few different types of piano service, such as tuning and regulation. They are also considered different areas in training. Aside from piano tuning, other types of piano work/service are less understood, hence below's brief introduction.
Tuning
Piano consists of over 200 tight strings, and their tightness changes under the influence of seasons, resulting an out of tune piano. Tuning is the procedure to re-established the desirable string tension for pitches that sounds good to human ears. As tuning only concerns the tension of the strings, any troubles experience at the keys are unrelated.
Regulation
The piano action is complex manual mechanism responsible to transforming the movement of pressing a key into swinging a hammer towards the strings.
When a piano is played for a long time, components of the action start to wear and deform, resulting a less efficient mechanism. This will affect the performance, sensitivity and touch of the keyboard, and might eventually cause malfunctions such as sticky keys. Regulation is the procedure to restore and the mechanism's efficiency, making piano playing a more pleasant experience.
Repair
When piano components are too worn out, loose or broken, repair of replacement is needed. Common repair are string replacement, center pin and regluing keytops.
Even though piano often involve simple woodworking and gluing procedure, these knowledge are not enough to repair properly. For example, new parts will have slightly different dimension, which requires regulation skills to fit them with the current condition of the piano. On the other hand, string replacement will require tuning of the new string immediately.
Voicing
The sight of a piano technician stabbing piano hammers with a needle tool seems to be an impressive one, thus many people think of voicing as hammer stabbing (needling) procedure. However, voicing includes any procedures that serve to influence the tone of a piano. Because of that, tuning and regulation can be considered part of voicing, and should be addressed before and any needling. This is because accurate tuning can bring out the true sound of a piano, while proper regulation allows piano hammers to strike the strings for the best sound. Moreover, the proper contact between piano hammers and strings is necessary for the ideal piano tone. Therefore, before any hammer altering procedure is used, we ought to bring the piano into its best shape first. As a result, voicing is the most complex procedure among different types of piano service.
Cleaning
Cleaning piano usually means removing dirt and foreign objects from its interior. Cleaning and vacuum cleaning are not specialized skills, but dissembling pianos parts and clean them with care are. While cleaning, a technician can also evaluate and treat parts of the piano which is usually inaccessible. If the piano was infested by household pest, the technician should clean and evaluate the damages. Therefore, it is recommended to let a technician handle the cleaning.
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There are more types of piano service, which we do not currently offer.
Surface Repair and Refinishing
Since piano refinishing is a matter of appearance, it has little to do with pitch and performance. Piano refinishing is a complex subject involving very skillful work. In some way, it is more similar to furniture refinishing. There are also technicians who specialized in piano refinishing.
There are various method and material to give a piano its pleasant looks. Recent pianos are finished with thick layers of polyester. Although polyester is very durable, it is very challenging to repair once any chips or cracks develops.(Photo source)