Perhaps I'm turning the pins too fast when I'm taking the old strings out. I'll have to try slower next time (hopefully not soon...). They end up feeling as before restringing, but it seems to have taken months to "settle down". Similar to the experiences I've had with the new pianos. Much harder to tune in their first year, in large part because the tuning pins are tighter. I'm referring specifically to Steinways here, both because they're most of what I work on, and because I think it is part of how the Steinway pinblock is supposed to work. They block seems to relax into the proper feel, and even out the feel quite a bit over a year or so. A one-year-old Steinway (properly maintained) is much more fun to tune than a new one!!! It has long been my habit to turn the pins only to where the becket points at me, then wind a coil on a spare pin, etc. The total rotation is just about 3/4 turn each way, most of the time. (Most of this is in individual replacements, of course.) Doug Wood On 3/29/04 12:35 PM, "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no> wrote: > Hey there Doug ! Nice to see your name up. > > Perhaps I should clarify my last in the light of both Fred and your own > cautions. I said its doable, and I stand by that. But that means you > have to afford due attention to the job to get it stable. A week in > itself affords plenty enough time to do the deed, but you definantly > will be using a good deal of that week getting things stable enough for > a show. And you are going to want to pay it some extra attention in the > following week or two as well. > > As for how the tuning pins will feel. I've done perhaps 200 > restringing jobs over the years... some using the old pins, some using > new. I think its kind of hard to predict how they will end up feeling. > An old block is a fickle thing. But you can guard yourself a bit if you > are planing on using the old pins. Turn them slowly, and not more then > just enough to get the becket out. Pre-coil your new strings with the > appropriate tool off your choice and they will feel pretty darn much the > same as they did to begin with. Course... if they didnt feel good to > begin with...then perhaps one might want to try something else :) > > Cheers > RicB > > > Doug Wood wrote: > >> I agree with Fred, here. My somewhat limited experience with restringing >> concert instruments is that they will be difficult, to put it mildly, for a >> while. Not only will the pitch be dropping, but the tuning pins feel like a >> brand-new piano (worse: they're less consistent). Tight, and ornery. It is >> possible, I think to restring the treble sections (maybe even the whole >> piano) and put it on stage the next week, but it will require a lot of >> work!!! Better to allow yourself a month or two for it to settle down at >> least some. >> >> What I find curious is that this business of the tuning pins being ornery is >> almost as bad if I restring with the same pins. (I usually do this unless >> I'm restringing the whole piano, or there is some problem with the >> pinblock.) It seems that disturbing the pinblock by only 3/4-1 turn is >> enough to unsettle them for 4-6 months. ! >> >> Doug Wood >> >> On 3/29/04 6:36 AM, "Fred Sturm" <fssturm@unm.edu> wrote: >> >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >
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