[CAUT] When to restring...

Ron Nossaman rnossaman at cox.net
Thu Aug 5 17:52:17 MDT 2010


Jim Busby wrote:

> Good question. Obviously I think it is necessary. People think I’m nuts, 
> but this is one thing I’ve experimented enough with that I think is 
> worth doing. If even one agraffe starts to sizzle in a month, a year, or 
> 5 years later, and I have to remove it, how much time does THAT take to 
> restring, etc? If 4 or 5 do it, then who’s wasting time? That’s my point.

Hi Jim,
I haven't seen any indication that manufacturers of new pianos 
do anything like this sort of agraffe prep. Do any? How often 
do you find agraffes in month old, year old, and five year old 
pianos making noise? Not that it isn't a problem somewhere, I 
just haven't found it to be.


> I don’t believe it is as you say below because I have tested polished 
> agraffes by installing them and pulling the note up to pitch, then 
> removing them to see what happens to the newly polished agraffes. They 
> showed no sign of a groove. After about 1 year, and again 3 years I took 
> one off, and it still looked good!

I just sawed a takeout agraffe apart and took the attached 
photo. I looked for one of the uglier ones as a victim. I see 
a flat spot is worn where the string rides, like on bridge 
pins, and a transverse scoring. That may be a burr of sorts, 
or just a reflection as the radius changes. I can't really 
tell. I don't see how this won't happen polished or not, as 
long as the string rides on brass.


>Worth the two hours labor. But 
> of course, I make our slave labor do that stuff <G>.

I agree, it's worth the two hour's labor as long as it's free 
and someone else does the labor. In a commercial shop, it 
requires a decision and a price.

That agraffe isn't really blue, btw, I lit it with an led 
flashlight. <G>
Ron N
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