[CAUT] When to restring...

[Jim Busby]

Ron,


Ron, are you implying that the manufacturers usually have things right? <G> 

Now try it with a polished one. I'd like to see what happens. I'm betting the groove will be less.

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 5:52 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] When to restring...

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