SAMICK Piano Care
Caring for your SMC piano/keyboard:
You have just become the owner of a superb musical instrument. Your piano has been built by expert craftsmen. With proper care it will give a lifetime of outstanding musical performance.
The purpose of this booklet is to outline the proper procedures for care of your piano, which are essential if you are to derive the greatest joy from it.
All pianos need periodic adjustments. Their highly sophisticated mechanisms contain thousands of individual parts. Routine maintenance will be necessary if it is to continue to maintain its performance potential.
The care of your piano should not be particularly time consuming or expensive. Spend a few minutes with this booklet to learn the basics of piano care. After you have finished reading it, file it in a safe place and refer to it occasionally to refresh your memory on proper maintenance procedures.
Keep an accurate service record for your piano. This record should be helpful in keeping your maintenance program up to date and will be invaluable if you should ever decide to sell your piano.
WARRANTY
Furnished with the purchase of your piano is a copy of the warranty.
Read it carefully and send the warranty registration card to SMC.
The warranty on your piano covers a highly complex instrument. Your warranty does not cover routine maintenance such as tuning, action regulation and tone regulation. However, it does protect the owner against defects in materials or workmanship (see the warranty for specific details and limitations). Your best guarantee of long-term satisfaction from your piano’s performance will be your continuing care of the instrument as recommended in this booklet.
CARING FOR YOUR PIANO
Your piano is a magnificent musical instrument. It is also an
exquisite piece of furniture and needs to be cared for as a
cherished family heirloom, which it will become if properly
maintained.
If your piano has a high gloss finish, it is of polyester. If your piano has a satin finish, it is hand-polished lacquer. In any case your piano dealer can supply or recommend the correct polish.
If your piano is scratched or the finish is damaged, we strongly recommend that you contact your dealer who can recommend a professional furniture repair person and/or polisher. We recommend that you contact your dealer for assistance if any question about maintenance or repair that are not covered, should arise.
KEYS
Use only a clean piece of damp cheesecloth to wipe the keys. Be very
careful that dampness does not seep between the keys or down on to
the key bed. Dampness in the key bed can cause swelling, and hamper
the proper movement of the keys.
Do not put vases, pictures, drinks or objects of any kind on top of the piano.
Liberal application of common sense in the care of your piano’s finish is the wise course, remembering that it is both a delicate instrument and a fine piece of furniture.
CARE OF YOUR PIANO'S INTERIOR
The interior of your piano should be out of bounds to anyone other
than a qualified piano technician. A qualified piano technician
should handle any dealings with your piano’s interior.
Every two to three years, depending upon the exposure to dust and dirt to which your piano is subjected, the interior should be cleaned by a professional. If this step is neglected, you run the risk of exposing the pianos complex workings to undue wear at the hands of abrasive dust and dirt particles.
If a pencil, coin, hairpin, or foreign object of any kind should fall into your piano, a professional piano technician should remove it at once. Foreign objects can seriously affect the action and tone of the piano.
MAINTAINING THE SOUND
A few words about tuning, voicing and regulating your piano.
The design and craftsmanship that went into your piano endow it with extraordinary capabilities as a musical instrument. To get the most out of it, periodic adjustment will be required.
Routine service is part of piano ownership, and you should consider it no more unusual than the maintenance program you would have for an automobile. There are three basic steps in maintaining the sound and touch of your piano.
They are tuning, voicing and regulation:
- Tuning — keeps the piano strings at the right frequency and proper pitch
- Voicing — keeps the sound quality of the instrument even
- Regulation — keeps the touch and responsiveness quick and even
These three steps are exacting jobs that have consumed many hours during the final stage of creating your piano. These procedures should be done at intervals recommended by your technician. If you need a qualified technician to maintain your piano, contact your piano dealer. A brief discussion of each of the three steps will help you to understand what these steps are, why they are needed and when they are needed.
TUNING
Your piano was tuned many times before it left our factory. It was
tuned to and should be maintained at A440 pitch. This is the
internationally accepted standard and the standard for which all
pianos are engineered.
Unfortunately, no mater how expertly a piano is tuned, atmospheric variations, particularly humidity and hard and consistent playing, constantly conspire to knock it out of tune.
VOICING
While a piano is tuned to A440 pitch, which is an absolute reference
point, voicing is to some extent a matter of preference. Some
pianists prefer a “bright” voicing while others prefer a more
“mellower” sound.
Regardless of its original voicing, your piano’s tone will change with time due to the changing characteristics from use and age. Therefore, depending on your taste and the amount of use your piano gets, it needs to be voiced when your ear tells you it has changed.
In the voicing process, the resiliency of the hammer felts is adjusted with special tools and then all notes are balanced so that the tone is uniform throughout the keyboard.
This is obviously a job that demands special skills and should be performed only by a professional piano technician. We recommend that you consult your piano technician for his advice when voicing is required.
ACTION REGULATION
The action has been refined and perfected over years of continuous
development and thousands of pianos. They are truly world class in
their responsiveness and touch. In normal use, the action of your
piano will eventually need to be re-regulated to the original
factory specifications.
The need for regulation is to a certain extent a function of its use. A piano that gets normal home use will probably need regulation every two to three years. This is, of course, subject to individual judgment. Keep in mind that the action of a concert grand is regulated as a matter of routine before every performance. If your piano has an electrically-augmented player device installed, it will require regulation at least once a year to keep it in top playing condition.
It goes without saying that tone and action regulation is a job for a specialist. The two are usually done at the same time. Once again, we recommend that you consult your piano dealer for advice when you think your piano needs to be regulated.
LIVING WITH YOUR PIANO
As we have said, common sense is an excellent guide in the care of
your piano. This is especially true when you are choosing the proper
site for the piano in your home. About 70% of your piano is wood
which, even though it has been carefully selected and dried, is
still subject to change. It reacts to variations in temperature and
humidity. Constant fluctuation in either of these variables is
definitely bad for your piano and may lead to more frequent
servicing. The action regulation, tuning and voicing will become
less stable.
We urge you to adhere to the following recommendations that will help you minimize the environmental impact and help you keep your piano in optimum condition:
- Don’t position it in the path of an air conditioning, or heating outlet.
- Don’t put it near an evaporative cooler or a room humidifier.
- Don’t put it close to a non-insulated outside wall.
If you think of yourself as rooted to any of these spots and subjected to the same changes of temperature and humidity, you will be able to imagine what a piano in the same location would have to endure. Pianos placed in such locations cannot be expected to stay in tune and keep their adjustment.
Ideally, your piano should reside in a temperate atmosphere where relative humidity ranges from 45%. If this is not possible, remember that the idea is to keep environmental factors within a fairly narrow range. When placing your piano within a room, it is important to pick a spot where it will not be hit by direct sunlight. Exposure to direct sunlight will bleach the wood and ruin the piano’s carefully prepared finish.
It is a good idea to place a fairly accurate hygrometer near the piano so you can monitor humidity swings. Room dehumidification, a humidifier or air conditioner may be needed to maintain a stable environment. The consideration of these items far outweigh the increased servicing that may become necessary if these guidelines are not followed.
STORING YOUR PIANO
On rare occasions, it may be necessary to leave you piano unattended
in an environment that is neither heated nor cooled. Should you be
faced with this situation, we suggest that you contact your dealer
for their recommendation on storage preparations in your particular
climate.
MOVING YOUR PIANO
The cardinal rule of piano moving is always to have a professional
piano mover handle the job. Pianos are heavy and require special
tools, dollies and training to be moved without damage to the piano
or injury to the movers. It simply cannot be regarded as another
large piece of furniture.
We recommend that you contact your dealer for the name of a qualified piano mover in your area. Your dealer can also be of assistance should you need to know the shipping volume or weight of your piano.