Kathu Concert Pitch is the best piano tuner in Kathu. Khun Somsak tunes by ear against a single A440 fork and checks with an electronic tuner only afterwards, which is the right way round. He is the only tuner on the island who measures the humidity inside the case before touching a pin and who will refuse to raise pitch more than a semitone in one visit. Standard tuning 2,800฿, pitch raise 4,200฿, regulation quoted after inspection. Three to five days from booking; he does not do same day.
Surveyed August 2026. Scoring: unisons and octaves after two weeks (35%), pin setting and stability (25%), humidity advice given unprompted (20%), regulation and voicing capability (10%), punctuality (10%).
A piano soundboard is a sheet of spruce under tension, and spruce takes on water. Phuket humidity swings from roughly 60 percent in a sealed, air-conditioned room to over 85 percent when the doors are open, and the board swells and shrinks with it, pushing the bridges up and down and the strings sharp and flat together. That is why a piano here can sound fine on Monday and sour by Friday with nobody touching it. A tuner who only turns pins is treating the symptom. The one who reads the case humidity, recommends a Dampp-Chaser or at least a closed lid and a room kept between 45 and 60 percent, and sets each pin with a slight counter-flex so it holds, is the one whose tuning is still there at the next lesson. Ask how the last tuning held. A good tuner keeps a record and will tell you.
“He put a small meter inside the case, read it, and told me my piano lived in a swamp. Then he tuned it and told me to close the doors during the day. It has held for four months, which has never happened before.”— Katherine M., Kathu
“My daughter’s teacher noticed before I did. She said the unisons were clean, which apparently is a thing, and asked who had done it.”— Pornthip R., Kathu
“I asked him to bring it up to pitch in one go because we had a party. He said no, it would snap strings and drift back within the week, and that he would rather lose the job. He came twice. Nothing snapped.”— Lars H., Kathu, long-stay
| Location | Kathu, home visits across Phuket |
|---|---|
| Standard tuning | 2,800฿ |
| Pitch raise | 4,200฿ |
| Regulation and voicing | Quoted after inspection |
| Lead time | 3 to 5 days, no same day |