Agraffe Pings (was Re: Out of control)

[jolly roger]

Hi Avery,
               Yes I have noticed the problem, since hand reaming with
"pianotech's'  agraffe reamer, the problem has gone away.
Looking at new agraffes with a magnifying glass, I noticed quite a few
machining ridges on the surface.
On old agraffes, I noted the holes were worn a little on the oval side.
With rebuilds it seems to take 2-3hrs to clean up the agraffes, but it is
worth the trouble. 
Last year I did about 6 agraffes in the field on a Heinzman grand that had
some buzzy and pingy notes in the centre section. This had been a long
standing complaint with the client.
After removing the agraffes and reaming, put every thing back together with
new wire. What a change, clean tone and definitely an increase in power and
sustain.
We also spray them with a coat of protec before installation, It seems to
help rendering. But I may be fooling myself on that one.
Roger



At 08:20 AM 2/15/01 -0600, you wrote:
>Jim and list,
>
>Have others experienced this 'ping' problem on newer pianos or rebuilt
>ones with new agraffes? I never had until the last 3 yrs. or so. And
>it also seems to only be on Steinway agraffes.
>
>Is this an agraffe problem? Is there any way to correct it short of
>replacing the agraffes? One of our D's here have a few notes in the
>middle and lower middle that are extremely difficult to tune. When they
>ping, they always jump too far! The effect is very similar to those
>snappy Baldwin tuning pins. Frustrating!!!!!!!
>
>Avery
>
>>BTW, the replacement piano for this performance was a new 'D'.
>>It's still relatively "green", and coupled with the humidity swings, I
>>have to jockey across agraffe pings *and* ratcheting pins to find the
>>sweet spot. No doubt it will experience the same fate... just faster!
>>
>>Jim Harvey
>>
>>
>>Jim Harvey
>>harvey@greenwood.net
>>Greenwood (n): the largest city in South Carolina WITHOUT an Interstate
>