my piano got tuned the other day but it sounds weird?

Question

i sat down and started to play this morning, but 53 keys, to me, sound odd. like if you were to put down the middle pedal down and all the keys get softer and harder to press. i get the feeling that those 53 keys are as the middle pedal were down. sometimes when i press a key it doesnt press as well. From about C3 to A7 ( some keys are okay ) i have trouble playing my music . should i call for a refund or is there a way to fix this problem? :/

Answer 1

sixty or seventy is "mature" for a piano, six is not.



... tuning should have nothing at all to do with the touch of the instrument.



Edit, a thought after reading nemesis answer:

In modern uprights a felt mute rail is activated by the middle pedal. The rail is held out of the way by means of springs. It is possible that a spring at one end or the other of the mute rail has been dislodged by the tuner when he reassembled the front of the casework after tuning. If the felt curtain is hanging at the level of the hammers, it will both impede the hammers movement and muffle the sound somewhat. It should be easy enough to determine if the mute rail felt is hanging in the way of the hammers.



... and a tuner would not voice an instrument without compensation. (Perhaps one or two hammers, but not the full scale.)



I never liked shaping hammers and needling them at the client's home. That's good rebuild work that you're not going to do in an afternoon ... figure weeks ... a few hours on an off at a time.

Answer 2

Diagnostics at a few thousand miles distance is a notoriously tricky business :-) but taking you at your word -- with 53/88 keys sounding muffled, which is what you appear to be saying re 'middle pedal' -- then your tuner has likely as not begun to voice your hammers after some years of use.



This is done by means of a tool that pierces the hammerhead felt with sharp needles to ease compaction. This would indeed give that effect after it has been done of making the sound 'muffled' -- the felt is softer and the string 'grooves' on the striking surface will have been roughed up. If this is what has happened then your instrument will settle again once you have been playing it a while. Use will begin to re-compact the felt.



Contact the tuner and ask him if that is actually what he has done. A simple tuning will not otherwise materially affect sound production like you report.

Answer 3

Contact the person who tuned the piano and ask what gives! The touch should NOT change at all with a tuning!