I'm curious if anyone can give me an idea of how much it costs to tune a piano. I recently bought a used 1970's vintage Cable-Nelson Spinet and it needs slight tuning. I live in the New England area if that helps.

I am a piano tuner/technician. Have been one since 1974 when I started while in high school.

If the piano is in great shape and has been tuned on a regular basis, like once every six months or no less than twice a year, the going rates for tunings then is about $85.00 to $95.00 on the coasts of the U.S. and anywhere from about $60.00 to $80.00 in the Midwest. Larger metropolitan areas like Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas, etc. will have prices comparable to the coasts. I charge $70.00 to tune a piano if the conditions that I have mentioned above have been met. If a piano has not been tuned in many years, the pitch of it is most likely to be really flat. If that is so, then I do what I call a "chip" tuning. I treat the piano like I have just put new strings on it and chip it basically to pitch. Then I really tune it on the same visit. The piano is not going to stay in tune with one "real" tuning if it hasn't been tuned in many years. I charge $30.00 for a "chip" tuning. This saves the customer money in the long run by not having to pay for two or more real tunings on separate visits.

Another thing to consider, is the distance that the tuner is going to have to travel to get to your place to tune the piano. You may be looking at some extra charges for mileage.

Most people don't really know when their piano is out of tune. They will thus tolerate their instrument being out of tune more than a professional pianist will tolerate. If you play single notes and hear any beats, then those notes are out of tune.

It is important to have your piano tuned every six months and no less than once a year.

I know that you haven't asked, but as far as finding a reliable and experienced tuner, you can ask a music store or others who have pianos about who their tuner is. If a tuner is a Registered Piano Technician with the Piano Technicians Guild, then he or she will have had to pass strict tests to make sure that he or she knows what he or she is doing. Although, just because a person might not be a member of the Guild doesn't mean that they don't know what they are doing. Look for experience and reliability.

Some music stores make money off the tuners that work through them. So, I would advise finding a tuner that is not sent out by a music store. You will save money that way. "Referred" by the music store is one thing, and "sent out" by the music store may be an entirely different thing. For instance, around where I live, there is a music store that tells people that it will cost $100.00 to tune their piano. Obviously, they are making money off supplying the tuner with a tuning job. The going rate for tunings around where I live ranges from about $60.00 to $80.00.

Thank you for a very helpful answer. The piano I just purchased is from a piano instructor and he told me he had it regularly tuned but did need a tune "and he pointed to the left quarter side of the piano". He also told me that even if he had just tuned it that it will likely need to be re-tuned after I moved it and it had adjusted to the new environment. I'm not a piano player and I must admit that I really know nothing about them other than the fact that I really enjoy listening to piano. I bought the piano for $400 for my 9 year old who is currently taking piano lessons and liked the way this piano played compared to her teacher's grand piano.

Thanks again for your feedback.