.: S E R V I C E S :.

Piano maintanence - our various services offered:

Tuning your piano -

Tuning is the adjustment of the tension of all of your piano's 250 or so strings to the correct pitch or frequency. This ensures that notes played in a musical interval (octaves, chords, etc.) will sound in harmony and to ensure that the piano's beautiful tone lasts just as long as you do. The majority of pianos go haywire and deteriorate primarily because they have not been maintained at the proper pitch for a long period of time. It pays to take note that if your piano doesn't sound bad, it still requires tuning, in the similar way a vehicle functioning perfectly needs it's regular service maintanence.

Remember, your piano is made entirely of wood and metal, and in order for these two drastically different materials to work together, they need to be in balance with each other. Keeping your piano at concert pitch (A=440hertz) ensures that the tension of the the strings (often totalling several hundered tonnes!) bearing down on your piano's giant iron frame and soundboard are more or less equal over the years, therefore prolonging it's life.

Rates are $60-$80 for uprights depending on it's size and complexity and $120 for grands. It is recommended that you try your piano out BEFORE the tuner has left in case there are corrections that need to be done.

Voicing your piano -

Every piano has its own unique sound. One might be described as 'glassy' another as 'warm'. One might have a 'full singing' tone, and yet another sounds 'thin.' Although the original design establishes the basic character of your piano's tone, your technician can modify it to better suit your taste or restore its original tone if it has deteriorated with age. The process of modifying a piano's tone is called voicing.

Does my piano need voicing?

Your piano may benefit from voicing if:

• You don't like the sound your piano makes even after it has been tuned.
• Tone varies radically from note to note.
• You cannot achieve a range of tone (mellow to bright) at different volumes.
• The piano has lost its ability to play softly.

Before deciding if your piano needs voicing, make sure it is well-tuned and well-regulated. Play various styles of music on it and listen for things you don't like and point it out to the technician before voicing of your piano has commenced.

Some types of voicing procedures are long-lasting, especially those intended for your home, so give yourself some time to explore the sound of your instrument before deciding to change it.

Regulating your piano -

Over time the mechanical aspects of pianos wear out due to regular playing as well as dimensional changes in wood and wool parts due to changes in humidity. Your piano will need to be adjusted to compensate for these effects of wear in order to keep functioning in tip top condition and to prevent premature wear and tear, and potentially serious problems. A rough guideline would be that heavily thrashed pianos will definitely need regulation every 6 months to a year, where the average family piano that has been played on lightly by you and the kids, maybe the occasional domestic helper :), will almost never require adjustment in a few years.

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Piano Repairs and Restoration:

Reconditioning:

Reconditioning, a service designed improve a piano's performance, (keeping in mind both costs and benefits). is the process of returning a piano back in service by repairing, cleaning and adjusting the piano action/structure for close-to-new performance. Parts are replaced only where/when necessary. We usually do this to customers pianos with only moderate wear and tear or those of medium value with average performance requirements. Reconditioning does not involve replacing major components such as the soundboard, bridges, pinblock, and most action parts. This means the performance and life-span of an older piano will not be restored to new, but rather, the piano is "refreshed" and possibly, can get an additional 20-50 years of lifespan on top of it's present state, depending on how it is maintained.

Please note that we DO NOT import any reconditioned pianos from japan, as we are uncertain of the quality of work done by the workers, mostly of which are third party. We will only perform this service when requested by the customer or when, after an appraisal of the piano, we think the piano will benifit in terms of performance and better sound.

Rebuilding:

COMPLETE REBUILDING - disassembly of the ENTIRE piano's structure

Click to bring up a diagram describing the various parts of the piano

The following parts of the piano are inspected and repair as necessary, including replacement of ALL worn, damaged, or deteriorated parts. The piano is then adjusted to the same or similar tolerances as new.

• Soundboard
• Bridges
• Pinblock
• Strings
• Action and keyboard
• Case Refinishing

PARTIAL REBUILDING includes only one or two of these areas, for example rebuilding of the action and structure, but not case refinishing. Rebuilding RESTORES the piano to ORIGINAL CONDITION OR BETTER. Such comprehensive work is usually most practical for high-quality instruments here maximum performance and longevity are required.

An easy way to gague whether your piano would be better off in the junkyard OR rebuilt would be these costs involved:

• Replacement Value - Value of the equivalent/similar brand new model at retail price
• Rebuilding Costs - A typical partial rebuild that will be more than enough on pianos in this climate costs from SGD$5000-SGD$10,000
• Value of your piano when brand new
• Current Value of your piano
• Value of your piano after rebuilding

CASE STUDY/EXAMPLE:

Amery's 1975 Yamaha semi concert grand worth $59,000 brand new as of the pricing in 2002, (7'4", or 225cm long) was worth SGD$30,000 when new back then in 1975. Now, because of wear and tear due to heavy use, is only worth $8000, and partial rebuilding costs (this piano didn't need a full rebuild) was around SGD$5000. After the whole process of rebuilding, the piano was restored to brand new condition, minus the case refinishing which was nearly faultless (scratches in a few unnoticable areas), and had a killer sound, and was better than a brand new semi concert grand since it was CUSTOM designed to suit his demanding specifications. The cost of this piano is now worth very close to brand new, which was appraised at SGD$27,650.

As you can see in this example, rebuilding was definitely a worth cause as in total, only SGD$5000 was spent to bring the total value up nearly 3 1/2 times it's cost (ie. from $8000 to $27,650)

Do keep posted on before and after pictures/sound recordings available as a testimonial to our quality rebuilding work.

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Buying your piano

In any case, we do buy used pianos from customers on a standalone basis. You don't have to get a new piano to sell us your used piano. However, because we WILL restore your piano to as new a condition as possible inside (in the interests of it's working/mechanical longevity and appearance) before reselling it, a beat up piano won't be too viable for us as too much work is involved and the end result may not too pleasing.

Not to worry though, as 90% of the time we see a piano that is suitable for restoration and reselling, so just give us a ring and we'll come take a look at your piano free of charge, no obligation

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Appraisal

Need to find out the current fair market value of your piano? Call us and we'll evaluate how much your piano is worth, the condition of all it's working parts and it's recommended resale value.

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