08/22/2026
Here’s a friendly reminder to hire a professional piano tuner instead of buying a “DIY kit”:
A client told me that her son-in-law tried to tune her piano before she called me. She had a Winters Spinet (probably a 70’s piano). Her son-in-law bought a “tuning kit” from Amazon. It included a felt strip, 2 rubber mutes, and a Harpsichord tuning lever!!!!!
For those of you who don’t know, a harpsichord is a stringed instrument in which the tuning pins are held at much lower tension and are easy to adjust with a small tool.
Pianos are much higher tension and require a lot more leverage to adjust the tension of the strings.
Surprisingly, he somehow managed to tune B3 to G #4! More than a 5th sharp of what it was supposed to be. I was amazed that the string didn’t break on him. He probably stopped there because his hand got tired with his small tuning lever! I applaud Winters for making a piano that could handle that tension, and God for letting it not snap on the way back down!
