Does a piano need tuning after storage?

The short answer is yes. Almost every piano that comes out of storage needs tuning, and the fact that it does is not a sign that anything went wrong. A piano is a tensioned wooden machine, and changing its environment means changing the air around the wood, the strings and the pins that hold the tension. The result is some pitch drift, and pitch drift means tuning. What varies is how much, how quickly and how many times.

Why storage causes pitch drift

The main cause is not movement, though collection and re-delivery do contribute. It is the change in atmospheric conditions between one room and another, or between a storage facility and your home. Wood absorbs and releases moisture as the air around it changes. The soundboard swells slightly in damper air and flattens slightly in drier air, and those small changes alter the tension across the strings. Over time the strings also relax slightly under sustained tension, which pulls the pitch down across the instrument.

A piano that has been in a climate-controlled facility will have experienced steady conditions throughout its stay, which means the wood arrived at the facility in one state and stayed there. The pitch drift in this case comes mainly from the change of environment on re-delivery, not from anything that happened while it was in storage. A piano that has spent time in a cold, damp or seasonally variable space will have been through many cycles of expansion and contraction, and may arrive back in a more unpredictable state.

When to call the tuner

Not on re-delivery day, and not the day after. Give the piano a week or two to settle into the room before you book a tuning. The instrument needs time to acclimatise to its new environment: the temperature, the humidity, the position near or away from radiators and windows. A tuner who comes too soon will be working on a piano that is still moving, which means the work will not last as long as it should.

Two weeks is a sensible waiting period after a short or medium stay. For a piano coming back after a year or more in storage, three to four weeks of settling time before the first tuning gives the strings a better chance of holding what the tuner sets.

• Wait at least two weeks after re-delivery before booking a tuner
• Position the piano where it will live before the first tuning, not somewhere temporary
• Keep it away from radiators, windows and direct sunlight while it settles
• If the room is being redecorated, wait until the work is finished and the humidity has stabilised

How many tunings to expect

For a short stay of a few weeks to three months, one tuning after the settling period is usually enough. The piano went away in a known state, conditions were controlled throughout, and the pitch drift is likely to be modest. A routine tuning brings everything back to standard and the instrument is ready to play.

For a stay of three months to a year, one tuning will often do the job, but a second visit four to six weeks later is worth having if the pitch was significantly down at the first session. When pitch has dropped more than a semitone across the instrument, a process called pitch raise is needed before a fine tuning is possible. That is a service any qualified piano technician can carry out, but it does mean returning for a second appointment.

For stays of a year or more, plan for two tunings as a minimum, and ideally three spread over several weeks. The first brings the pitch up to a workable range. The second, a few weeks later, fine-tunes the strings once they have settled under tension. A third, another few weeks on, locks in the stability. A piano that has been away for two or three years will almost certainly need this fuller programme before it holds concert pitch reliably.

What climate control means for tuning

The conditions a piano is kept in during storage directly affect how much tuning work it needs when it comes back. A piano from a properly managed, climate-controlled facility has been sitting in stable temperature and humidity throughout its stay. The wood has not been through repeated cycles of swelling and shrinking. The strings have not been exposed to damp air that accelerates corrosion and increases the risk of breakage when the pitch is raised.

PianoStorage is part of the Pianospeed Group and the facility holds temperature and humidity at consistent levels all year. A piano coming out of storage with us typically needs the standard post-move tuning programme rather than anything more involved. A piano coming out of a garage, a school storeroom or an unmanaged self-store unit after the same period often needs considerably more work, and in some cases the strings or the action will need attention from a technician before a tuning is even productive.

Climate-controlled storage does not eliminate the need for tuning after re-delivery, but it does mean you are starting from a much better place.PianoStorage