Field Notes: The Kingsway's Fine Old Pianos

Field Notes is a series about what we actually see tuning pianos across the GTA — one area, one pattern at a time.

Some of the finest old pianos we tune anywhere live along the Humber — in the Kingsway, Humber Valley, Sunnylea, Princess-Rosethorn, and Edenbridge. These are homes built in the 1920s–50s with living rooms sized for a grand, and many still hold the instrument that arrived with the house or the family: Heintzman and Nordheimer grands, Steinway and Mason & Hamlin uprights, the occasional Bechstein. Caring for a sixty-to-hundred-year-old instrument is a different discipline from caring for a new one, and it's worth understanding if you own one.

What ages well, and what doesn't

A well-built piano's structure — plate, case, bridges — can genuinely last a century in a stable room. What ages on a predictable clock is everything that moves or absorbs: hammers compact and groove, strings fatigue and lose brilliance (bass strings especially go dull), action felts and bushings wear, key tops yellow and chip, and the soundboard slowly loses crown across decades of humidity cycling. The pinblock — the laminated wood the tuning pins grip — is the part whose condition decides everything, and it's the one thing that can't be judged from outside. (How pianos age, in full.)

The pattern we see in the Kingsway: instruments that were expensive when new and have been kept in the same stable room for fifty years are often in remarkable shape structurally — while carrying wearing parts that are simply tired. That's the good problem to have.

The heritage-piano care routine

Tune by ear, twice a year. Old instruments have individual character — inharmonicity that differs from a modern piano, unisons that want a listening ear. Twice-yearly, once settled into each season, is the norm for the fine old grands here; annual is the floor for the uprights.

Placement is half the battle. These homes have radiators, fireplaces, and big south windows — and the piano often sits where it was placed in 1955, in front of one of them. Five minutes moving it off the rad or out of the sun is the most valuable conversation of a first visit.

Humidity, deliberately. Old wood has less tolerance for swings than new. A room humidifier from November to March and a hygrometer beside the piano; for the finest grands, an in-piano humidity system earns its cost as insurance on an irreplaceable instrument.

Renew wearing parts before they fail. Reshaping or replacing hammers, restringing the bass, replacing key bushings — done proactively on a good old piano, these are maintenance, not restoration, and they keep the instrument playing at its level rather than declining to a crisis. (Where the repair-or-replace line sits.)

What "restoration" should mean — and shouldn't

Owners of heritage pianos get pitched "full restoration" often. The honest framework: rebuild what's worn; preserve what's original and sound. New hammers, strings, and action felts on a piano whose board and pinblock are healthy is money well spent — a fine old instrument playing like new. Replacing a soundboard or pinblock that's still doing its job is expensive intervention for no audible gain. And refinishing a case with honest patina is a matter of taste, not necessity — many owners prefer the history.

The question to ask any shop proposing a large job: which parts are you replacing because they've failed, and which because you replace them as a package? A good technician answers that plainly.

The Humber Bay footnote

Down the hill, Humber Bay Shores has the opposite piano population — brand-new baby grands in glass towers — and the opposite problem: sun and dry HVAC rather than radiators and age. Same street name on the map, different piano care entirely, which is rather the point of these notes.

Tuning across Etobicoke: service details and neighbourhoods here. Own a heritage instrument and want an honest assessment of what it needs — and what it doesn't? Book a visit.

Common questions

Is a 90-year-old piano worth maintaining?
If the structure is sound — pinblock grips, board still has crown — very often yes. Fine old pianos in stable rooms are frequently better instruments than new mid-market pianos. The assessment tells you which you have.

How often should an antique grand be tuned?
Twice a year, by ear, timed after each season settles. Old instruments have individual character that rewards a listening technician.

Should I restore my old piano or leave it original?
Replace the wearing parts that have failed (hammers, strings, felts); preserve the original structure and finish when they're sound. Beware "full restoration" packages that replace healthy parts on principle.