[CAUT] pinned agraffe

[Bob Hohf]

It seems to me that this discussion is missing the intention behind pinned
agraffes.  If terminating the vibrating string with steel were the intent,
wouldn't it be simpler to make the whole thing out of steel? And wouldn't a
steel termination defeat the purpose of using brass in agraffes, since brass
is "lubricious" in contact with steel strings? I bought a set of pinned
agraffes from Renner Stuttgart that I intended to use to replace solid brass
ones in a Bosendorfer I was rebuilding.  After close inspection of the
pinned ones, I decided to re-install the originals.  In most of the pinned
agraffes I have, the steel pin does not make the termination, but appears to
be backing up or reinforcing the relatively soft brass.  However, in a
number of them, the steel pin has broken through the brass creating some
nasty-looking brass burrs that would be sure to buzz on the string.  My take
is that the pinned agraffes are a good idea that but are too difficult to
manufacture with enough consistency. 

 

Bob Hohf 

 

 

  _____  

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of McCoy,
Alan
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 6:15 PM
To: CAUTlist
Subject: Re: [CAUT] pinned agraffe (was Re: Toughest piece for piano
stability?)

 

This piano was difficult to tune everywhere,though less so in the bass. But
I think that was due more to the extreme counterbearing angle of the string
that occurred throughout the piano. On this piano the tone was rich and full
in the mid range and bass as per the usual M&H BB, but it was (and, much to
my dismay, still is) thin in the top 1.5 octaves. The only string breakage
on this piano was in the lower end of the top capo section (none in the
agraffe section). Tuning is easier now that I ground down the plate and
decreased the string counterbearing angle, but there is only so much
grinding you can do, so it is still not an easy tuning piano anywhere in the
scale. Still has that killer BB bass and tenor.

Alan


From: Don Mannino <dmannino at kawaius.com>
Reply-To: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:01:03 -0800
To: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org>
Subject: Re: [CAUT] pinned agraffe (was Re: Toughest piece for piano
stability?)

I never really cared for them - the strings can get more sticky
(ping-ping-ping) making tuning more difficult, and the tone was more thin
and bright, at least to my ear.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101115/b8a9a651/attachment.htm>