How much does it cost to restring a piano?
If you have an old piano that you do not want to sell or discard, you can restring it to make it sound more like a new one. If you are wondering how much does it cost to restring a piano, we have a solution for you.
In this article, we have discussed about restring a piano, its cost, and the factors that you should consider while spending your bucks on the same. Before knowing the cost you should first know what does it mean to restring a piano and why pianos need to be restrung?
What does it mean to restring a piano?
Basically, restringing a piano is part of rebuilding your old piano; it does not necessarily refer to the maintenance item as with others string instruments. Usually piano strings are durable and can last for generations. You can tune your piano daily but that does not affect the strings of this amazing musical instrument.
Why do you need to restring your piano?
Piano strings comprise of a few piano wires; piano wires are a high carbon refined grade of music wire that comes in different diameters. Each string is connected to a tension that the scale design of the instrument determines. Strings have a few pressure points such as the hitch pin, bridge pins, pressure bars, and tuning pins. The wire fatigues on these pressure points over time. The wire loses its ability to remain elastic as it stiffens with age. The acoustic properties of the wire are also decreases as the required tension begins to stretch the wire. Excessive playing is one of the reasons that accelerates the fatigue of the wire. Hence, you need to restring your piano to maintain the acoustic properties of the wires.
Other Works To Be Considered When Restringing a Piano
Piano restringing requires huge effort as it is an easy routine maintenance item like other stringed instruments. If you are planning to restring your piano, you should think about evaluating the entire instrument for other structural deficiencies. You should consider repairing cracking bridges, the pin block, and the soundboard to have a solid foundation upon which you have to string. Otherwise, you will waste your hard earned money and valuable effort that you put on restringing. So let us discuss the other aspects that you should consider before going for restringing. Remember one thing all these repairing will add extra cost to the restringing of your favourite musical instrument.
Other Aspects of Repairing:
- Plate Refinishing
- Soundboard Repair
- Bridge Replacement
- Pinblock Replacement
- Damper Replacement
Now let us discuss the important steps that you have to follow in the process of restringing your piano.
What Does Piano Restringing Involve?
Typically restringing your piano includes the following processes:
- Damper Removal
- Recording the string scale
- String Removal
- Tuning Pin Extraction
- Bass string Duplication
- New String Installation
- New Damper Installation
Cost to Restring a Piano
Typically restring an entire piano will cost you around $1,000 to $10,000 and above. An upright piano restring may cost $2000 to $4000, while a baby-grand or grand piano restring may cost you somewhere between $4000-$10,000. If you want to restring only certain sections of damaged strings, then you do not need to restring the whole piano.
Added to the restringing cost you have to spend a few more bucks on technician charges. A technician may offer services for $55 per bass string. For 40-55 bass strings the restringing cost will be $2000 dollars for the bass octaves of a piano alone.
Interestingly, you can purchase a news piano at this range. Hence we recommend purchasing a new one if and only if your current piano is really not of particularly high value.
Generally tuning a piano cost you around $100, while to completely restring a piano can cost you around $1000 and above. Piano strings last for really a longer period of time; hence they do not need restringing most of the time. But if the strings become rusty or missing, they can be restrung.
Usually, restringing a piano costs almost the same as the piano is worth. If you have a good quality piano, then you can go for new strings, else you will end up in wasting your hard earned money on an old music instrument. If you have bought a used console piano for about 15 $500 for your kids, then you need not think about restringing it. Better, you can purchase a new one. This will be more cost effective.
While restringing your piano you should consider both treble and bass strings as this will give a more beautiful sound to the piano. Typically the technician replaces the tuning pins at the time of restringing.
Cost of Piano Strings
Piano strings can cost you as little as $2 per string or even lesser if the technician creates the string from piano wire. However, you can find sets of piano strings for $250 – $400. The cost of the strings varies depending on the quality.
Factors that affect the cost of Piano Restringing
The cost of restringing a piano is affected by a few factors. These are:
- Technician’s experience: If you find a technician with a lot of experience in repairing pianos, then you should expect to pay a little more. An experienced and well-known technician will charge more than a less popular technician.
- Upright vs Baby grand vs Grand piano: The cost of the restringing is highly affected by which type of piano you have. If you have a higher model then you have to pay high price too.
- Restringing just a section, or a whole instrument: If you are restringing just a section then it will cost less compared to the cost of restring a whole piano.
- Going rates in your area: Another important factor that affects the cost of restringing is the rates in your locality, which may differ from place to place.
Things you should know before restringing a piano
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If you piano is in good condition to get restrung
If your piano is in a good condition to get repaired or restrung then you can think about spending heavy bucks on it. Otherwise we suggest you to go for a new one instead of repairing the current one.
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If the technician is skilled enough to complete the job
If you end up in finding an amateur technician then you may get prepared to bear a loss. The inexperienced technician may damage your loved musical instrument instead of repairing it. Another important factor that you should know is to have an understanding about pins attached to the strings. Most of the times, the pins need to be one or two size larger than the original pins.
Conclusion
In a nutshell the restringing is the process of having a piano with brand new strings. The process is expensive and is risky too (if you do not find an inexperienced repairing expert). Make sure that the piano is old enough and valuable enough to get restrung. The important thing to remember is you should have a brief idea about the cost of piano strings and the different parts that needs to be repaired while doing restringing. Otherwise, the technician may befool you to spend a lot of money on your old piano.
