The approach of September means piano lesson time is just around the corner and time for acoustic pianos to receive a tune-up. Alex Thiessen, a Registered Piano Technician from Oak Lake, is an accomplished musician who loves to get into his music, not only on the strings, but in the strings.
“I have had the business running since 2017 and have been doing private work since then,” replies Thiessen. He received accreditation through the Piano Technician’s Guild and his peers have authorized his work and approved him as being proficient and skilled in his ability to fine-tune acoustic pianos, small and great.
“My colleague in Brandon, Mark Cramer who taught me the trade, is a registered technician as well,” adds Thiessen. “In my teenage years, I started out studying Cello at the University in Brandon, but realized I wanted to put my hands to work, not just playing music but also working on the instruments and the piano is the best option for this kind of work.”
Thiessen’s business takes him throughout Westman to Virden and as far as the Russell area. He travels to places in eastern Saskatchewan such as the Rhein, Kamsack and Yorkton areas.
When Thiessen tunes a piano, he often uses a combination of techniques. He says he was trained to use a tuning fork to set A440; from there he would tune the rest of the strings completely by ear. However, the piano tuner says it is not always the most efficient way to get the work done in a timely fashion. “I have a digital tuning program and that helps me speed the process up.”
He sets his time allotment at an hour and a half to tune a regularly serviced instrument, but if the piano has had a few years between tunings, the average time would be roughly two hours. “If it needs to be tuned more than twice to bring the pitch up, it can take more time especially if there are parts broken inside or it is in need of extra repair.”
As long as the piano is well kept, an older instrument is not necessarily more of a challenge to tune.
High humidity or dry air plays a huge role in a piano’s tuning, as the wood and parts inside respond to the [level of moisture] in the atmosphere. “At this point the piano will eventually lose its ability to perform adequately,” adds Thiessen.
Find out more about Alex Thiessen’s piano service here.
