Tuning
When someone wants me to look at a piano they just got, the first thing I suggest is a tuning. It is my best tool for diagnosing any issues in the action, pinblock, or pedal mechanisms. When I tune, I listen to every individual string, feel every tuning pin move, play every key many times at different volumes, and I feel how every note plays.
9-foot concert grand pianos sound so good because their strings are closest to their theoretical length. As pianos get smaller, the engineers and designers make compromises in string length to fit everything into a smaller case. When I tune, I listen and make decisions that help the instrument sound its best, a process that is impossible for an electronic tuning device.
