New 2025 Maqiano™ Microtuning System - Operating Instructions

The different parts, principles of operation and Important warnings

 

Opening the box

 

Put the box on the table, the logo facing up before opening. Otherwise some heavy metal objects might fall on your toes.


Warning about the strong neodymium magnets

 

Always keep the parts in good order inside the box when not in use. The magnetic parts can be very active if you leave them on the table, flying and attacking metal objects from surprisingly far. If you break a magnet, don't try to fix it, take gloves, carefully throw it in the bin and ask us for a new one.

When lifting up the parts, moving them around and installing the Maqiano units in your piano, always keep in mind that the magnets want to hook up to all metal objects, including the piano body. Protect the piano with your fingers in between the piano and the unit, when installing Maqiano in places where the iron support bars or other metal parts are close.

When storing the small magnets in the box, hold them tight with your fingers until they are well fastened in their place. It can be annoying to separate them from each other later.

 

Another Warning

 

Never use any force when Maqiano is inside your piano! If something is stuck, slowly and carefully find out how to solve that easily, never pull anything out using force. If you need to use any force when adjusting something, or change the Magnetic Tip for example, always take the unit out and do it  outside the piano. Don't use the Tool inside the piano, there's a risk that you drop it in between the strings. If this happens, you might have to remove the keyboard and the whole hammer mechanism to get it out.

The Working Principle of Maqiano


Maqiano works like a capo in guitar, you attach it in the choir of strings between the agraffe (or pressure bar in upright piano) and the hammer, and the part between The Magnetic Tip and the agraffe stops vibrating, so the speaking length of the string gets shorter and the tuning level goes up.

The main thing that does the job is The Mass, which is attached to the choir of strings with The Fastening Part. The Magnetic Tip will be the new starting point of the string vibration. The Tip is fastened to the choir of strings with the L-Stick that goes under the choir of strings.

 

See the video!

 

 

Installing on grand piano

Pre-adjustments


The Mass then rests on the piano body behind the agraffes, and the Magnetic Wedge supports it. The Wedge should be like it is in the photo - thicker magnet towards the Mass, and thicker end towards the Tip. Check also that the Magnet of the Tip is on the outer side of its groove in Fastening Part, thus further from the agraffes than The L-Stick.

First put the Maqiano unit on its place so that the Magnetic Tip is centered above the choir of strings and the Mass is resting on the piano body between the agraffes and the tuning pins. You can press the Tip lightly against the string to hear the tuning level, and adjust it. The sound will crackle, never mind.

Now check the height of the Fastening Part related to the Mass. With adjusting that to the correct value, the Wedge rests firmly on the piano body, without gaps, and the Tip touches the strings, and the Fastening Part stands straight, making a 90° angle with the strings.

Then turn the Wedge a bit, so that it compensates the transversal gradient of the piano body, and the Maqiano unit is standing vertically straight.

Then you need to adjust the gap between the Tip and the L-Stick with the Screw, so that when you tighten the L-Stick with The Cam, there's exactly right amount of torque. If it's too loose, you hear crackle / buzz, and if it's too tight, you might twist the L-Stick or break The Magnetic Tip.

Watch this video to learn the perfect torque!

Now adjust the gap, try the torque with the cam, and when it's good, take the Maqiano unit out of the piano, holding the Screw with your finger so that it doesn't turn and the adjustment keeps right, and finally tighten the Nut to secure your adjustment.

Now you can easily install the pre-adjusted unit to the chosen pitch & tuning level, and with tiny changes in the wedge position and the Fastening Part's height adjustment, to any pitch with the same string thickness.

 

Installing on the low copper-wound strings

 

For the lower, thicker strings with copper-winding, you need to change the Magnetic Tip. Slide the plain magnet out of the groove, and replace it with the same size magnet that has black plastic around it. This is important, so you don't damage the magnet's surface, or cause scratches to the strings.

Remember thet you have to adjust the gap between the Tip and the L-stick for each string thickness separately.

 

Tuning level extremes

 

With the instructions above the tuning changes more or less a 1/4-tone. If you want to tune the note up just a tiny bit, you might have to add the extra magnet to the groove, so that there are two magnets, and the Tip gets closer to the agraffes. Again, you have to change the gap between the Tip and the L-stick. If you need to tune it even lower, you can remove the second magnet, and move the original one to the other side of the groove, inner side, even closer to the agreffes. This might change the timbre a bit softer.

 

If you want to tune a note much higher than a 1/4-tone, you might need to turn the Wedge 180° to get a horizontal surface below the Mass. Now the Maqiano unit can rest on the choir of strings, and the Tip gets further from the agraffes. In Steinways, there are this iron support bar that prevents doing this above middle-C or so. Make sure the Wedge is not laying on the adjacent strings!

 

Getting crackle / buzz? Or the choir of strings is out of tune?

 

Make sure that the Tip is in the center of the choir of strings. Check that the unit is standing vertically straight, looked from all directions. If not, adjust the Wedge or the Fastening Part's height position. Make sure the tightening torque of the Cam is correct, not too loose or too tight. Check also that the L-stick is not touching the adjacent string. And the last thing - not very likely to happen, but possible - the L-stick might be twisted. Take out the Maqiano unit and look at the angle of the L-stick. It should be exactly 90 degrees, so that it's in totally same direction with the Tip. If not, take pliers with a smooth surface in the teeth, and very carefully bend it back to perfect 90°.

If the choir of strings sounds like being out of tune, and you get this unwanted chorus-effect, check that the Maqiano unit is in the same direction with the strings, and the Tip is in 90° angle. If this doesn't help, turn it a bit right, listen, then left, listen again, and try to find a perfect spot. In some cases, if one string is slightly out of tune, you can fix it with the Maqiano :)

 

 

Installing in Upright Piano

 

Installing in upright piano is very similar to the same process with grand piano, so please read the previous chapter first. The biggest difference is that gravity isn't helping the unit to stay in its place, so you need to fasten the Mass to the pressure bar of the piano with the Magnetic Wedge. Since the pressure bar is level, not tilted like the grand piano body behind the agraffes, you need to turn the Wedge 180° to make the lower surface level too.

you need to do the same adjustments as for grand piano, and also change the Magnetic Tip when installing on the copper-wound strings etc.

In the lower stirings, if there's no pressure bar, you can use the Tool as substitute.  See the photo! Put the two 15x16mm plastic-wrapped magnets on the back of the Tool, attach it to the ends of the strings, above the little pins, move the magnets so that both of them are in ideal positions, then turn the hook behind the strings, and the Tool should stay there firmly. Now you can fasten the Mass of the unit there with the Wedge. When taking it out, again don't pull by force, you might have to turn the little handle to release the hook, and take the whole thing out simultaneously.

!!! Important !!! After installing, using the Tool or not, before start playing, do a stress test: play forceful attacks on the Maqiano-tuned note, and keep your other hand under the Maqiano unit, and make sure it keeps in its place! if not, change the angle of Maqiano, more towards vertical if the strings are very tilted. If the Cam is moving, try to find a different angle to it, and make sure the torque of the Cam is correct, and adjust the Screw if necessary.

 

Using the Survival Kit

 

If your pressure bar is not steel, the Wedge doesn't attach to it.  Take the strap of the Upright Piano Survival Kit, put the first hole around the upper end of the L-stick, through and below the Cam, and the last or second last hole around one of the tuning pins. Check the best route for the strap so that it holds the Maqiano unit in its place. Put the rubber cap in the tuning pin so that the strap cannot get out.  Then do the stress test as described above. If possible, in addition to the strap, if the pressure bar's screws are steel, they might help fastening the Mass if they happen to be in right places.