Care and Maintenance

Service
In order to be able to enjoy your instrument for many years, we kindly ask you to read the care recommendations as well as the answers to the most frequent questions. With this knowledge and the assistance of our service technicians you can maintain your Knabe's perfect playing condition for a small eternity.

Place
In order to be able to develop its full sound, a Knabe needs to be in a suitable place – the best places are inner walls at a certain distance from windows, doors leading outdoors and radiators. The average temperature should be between 20 and 22 °C (68 and 72°F). Please take care of the room’s acoustic properties – carpets, curtains and upholstered furniture might dampen the sound more than you expect.

Climate
The wood we use for our uprights and grands is a natural, living material that can change due to external influences. Among the natural changes of wood are expansion, shrinking, distortion, cracking and colour changes. Thanks to Knabe's masterly craftsmanship, we can assure that you will enjoy your instrument for years, even decades. Please do necessary to keep it that way.

  • Air humidity
    The relative air humidity around your piano should be between 45 and 65 per cent. The best thing is to have a hygrometer near the piano to be able to check it at any time. Most suitable are electronic hygrometers; your Knabe dealer can give you further information.

  • Draught
    Do not expose your piano to draughts – this air is always dry, and also the temperature change will affect the instrument. Additionally, moving air e.g. during heating times in winter collects a lot of water in the environment – especially from the natural materials of a piano.

  • Heat
    Please avoid direct heat from radiators, ovens or other sources of heat and do not expose your instrument to direct sunlight. Wood changes under exposure to UV rays, white pianos might discolour. A black piano is quite immune to such changes but will heat up quickly in sunlight – this will have negative effects on the tuning and regulation.

Service
A valuable and sensitive instrument like your Knabe piano has to be taken care of professionally all of its life: cleaning, tuning, voicing and regulation should be exclusively performed by approved service technicians – only in this case you can raise any warranty claims.

Tuning
The correct pitch of the strings is defined by their tension – it is advisable to tune more often during the first year of use until the material gets adjusted to the high tension; later on, your piano should be tuned twice a year, best before and after the heating period. The pitch should remain approximately the same (440 to 443 Hz) to improve your instrument’s ability to keep the tuning.

Voicing
The Knabe expert defines the brilliance and the colours of the sound during the voicing process by treatment of the hammer heads – this will make the sound soft or sharp, hard or mellow. When playing, the sound changes over the time; therefore, the instrument should be checked and if necessary voiced on a regular basis.

Care
In addition to professional service performed by qualified persons, the piano’s surface should be cleaned regularly – please use a dry, soft cloth for satined or polished cabinet surfaces. Do not use standard furniture polish as the wax and silicone it contains affect the sensitive “skin” of your instrument. As an alternative, you can use a damp natural leather cloth, which is also good for cleaning the keyboard – please make sure no water can enter the keys’ sides!