Samick Grand Bass String ...

[JHarvey440@aol.com]

> Somehow this points to a problem I can't solve. To refresh anyones > mind
this is not just one isolated piano, this is happening to me at > two
different churches, in two areas. Both are SG172's and
> both have more than 15 strings each that have broken.  Any help?

After a while, I believe you'll find this condition not mutually exclusive to
Samick, or any other particular brand. Technicians find this a difficult
problem to diagnose correctly, since we're not around when the pianos are
being used.

>From an earlier post, you are correct that the player is usually playing no
harder than would a concert artist. It is also correct that the pianist,
whether young or old, large or small, black, white or orange is irrelevant.
See if one or more of the following is accurate in describing your client(s)
with the string-breakage problems.

SETUP: Likely the names of these churches permit painting the name only one
time on the church van -- the title being so long it wraps around the
vehicle. Test: obvious.

COMPETITION and EGOS: In a typical "Church of What's Happening Now and
Bar-B-Que Place", the piano(s) are tuned only, and then only when they are no
longer acceptable with the fixed pitch of the Hammond organ and twin Leslie
tone cabinets. The pianist has feelings too, and wants to be heard along with
the singers, electric bass and drums. Test: Check for worn pedal surfaces and
wobbly, clicking keys on the ORGAN, cracked symbols on the drums, missing
cymbals on tamborines, and other signs of parallel (ab)use.

SKILL: The pianist has little, if any, musical training, and the songs
(regardless of any written music, if used) are played using three or four
chords, in usually one, but no more than one of three key signatures. Test:
Look around the piano for music -- if only three hymn books with same title
are found, I'm right. (The books are used to determine how many verses, and
in some cases, the words to the songs).

HAMMERS: The hammers are impacted and/or string-cut. This is not to imply
that they still have lots of felt on them, rather where the hammer actually
contacts the string. (The last one I saw, the hammers "looked" beautiful
through the strings, but had 18mm cuts across A4). Test: Measure (don't
guess) string cuts in center section of piano. My worst case ever was hammers
being completely worn out after only six months.

USAGE: A concert artist is playing different pianos at different times, over
different musical passages, using dynamics, and hopefully on a piano that is
well-maintained -- not just tuned. A concert artist has also studied
pedagogy. Your piano(s) have two dynamics -- off and loud, and likely the
only shiny pedal on your piano(s) is the damper pedal. This is typically used
in one of two ways; (1) sit down, press the damper pedal and hold until the
song is finished, or (2) use the damper pedal as a metronome. Test: Check the
damper travel on each of the offending pianos -- likely the travel from the
pedal is far greater than specification. Any blocking device or material has
usually been impacted (in the case of felt), or driven further into the keybed
 (screw, capstan, etc.), thereby permitting the damper stop rail to be driven
higher than specification.

PLAYING STYLE: If there's a name for this style of playing, I'm not aware.
However, during certain vocal (or aural) accompaniment, the piano is used as
an effects device -- in involves holding down the damper pedal (of course) and
 playing an octave in the bass with the left hand while playing appropriate
notes or chords with the right. This way, depending on the length of the
prayer, song, chant, point-being-made, etc., two bass strings could receive
the equivalent of five or six years of "normal" play. Test: No way. The
pianist is usually not your liason, and if so, will either not play for you,
or will not play the same way as during a service.

While continuing to soapbox (and speculate), a few other points:

1. If strings are replaced as they break without doing anything else, these
too will break in so many blows or so many months. Meanwhile, while playing
with, for example, one string of a bichord, and if the client waits for
tuning to be the only critirion for service, the other string is becoming
fatigued. A cyclic pattern is established.

2. You will not hear this from your clients, but these pianos are replacing
others that had the same problem. The string-breakage problems simply became
too chronic to not replace the instrument.

3. The former pianos are not the same manufacturer as the new.

4. You are likely a new tuner/technician to this particular client. They've
already tried others in your community -- and blamed them for their inability
to work the necessary magic to correct the problem.

5. There are those rare individuals who, with a playing style I cannot
duplicate, can break a NEW string while you wait. I've only had two clients
who could do this, so this can safely be eliminated from the discussion.

6. With all due respect to my esteemed colleagues in this web, except in rare
cases would I pursue "bad wire", flexibility, rescaling and other such issues.
 This problem is primararily under the umbrella of modern high-tension
scaling, abuse (the piano doesn't know the difference being willful and
unwillful abuse), lack of regular and proper maintainence regime, and lack of
client education.

Regards,

-jh-

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