Category Archives: piano hammer

Newest acquisition for the Leeds Piano Tuner

piano hammer, Piano Tuner Leeds, tools for piano tuning

There comes a time when every Leeds piano tuner needs to upgrade their piano tuning hammer. Well, upgrade might be the wrong word because the Fujan piano tuning hammer I also use is extremely high quality. I’ve been introducing this nifty device into my piano tuning starting last week – it’s a Keyes impact tuning hammer. Because it uses a weight to move and set the tuning pins it has two great benefits:

  1. It moves the wrest pin (or tuning pin) deeper in the wrest plank, setting the pin much better than anyone could manage with a regular piano tuning hammer.
  2. It uses fewer muscles in the body putting much less strain on the piano tuner (I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced some degree of shoulder pain doing this job!)

I’ve already been extremely impressed with the results, but for the sake of speed I currently use it for about 75% of my piano tunings (for the remaining 25% I use my trusty Fujan piano tuning hammer which has been my main hammer since 2017). If I was learning piano tuning today I would much prefer to start with an impact tuning hammer (from what I’ve heard, in colleges in the United States this is already the case).

Broken hammer cords?

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Today I received a polite message sent to me via Piano Tuner Leeds, asking about a full replacement of broken hammer flange cords on a second hand Yamaha U1. Needless to say, this will have to be discussed with the customer before pricing is decided upon. If you ever find yourself in his situation, it is highly advised that every cord is replaced. As with many broken action parts (particularly springs, tapes and cords), the breakage of one is a sign that others will soon follow. However, I always keep some spare rolls of cords in the car for emergency repairs. At a piano tuning visit to Headingley, Leeds I was urged to make a ten minute fix at the end of the booking, as is usually the case. In this instance, only one cord on the piano had broken – much to my relief.

Another job that occasionally comes up is the replacement of bad hammer butt felts and catcher leather on upright pianos. This is particularly important on older uprights, as the material tends to harden creating annoying clicks across the piano. As with many piano tuning and repair tasks, if only one or two need to replaced it can be completed for free after your tuning. I did not start a career in piano tuning to squeeze every penny out of the customer, but I do have bills to pay. That said, I want all my piano tuning clients to feel like they’ve been given a good deal as well as a first class service.

– Richard, Piano Tuner Leeds.