High tension bass

[TACOLE9675@aol.com]

I recently tuned a Chickering quarter grand and broke two of the wound
strings in the tenor. I ordered replacements and one of those broke also. I
noticed that I really had to pull the new strings _very_ tight (like to about
105% of breaking point). The near end of the winding moved about 1/2 inch and
my usual 3 coils ended up being 3-1/4.

This piano was restrung about 10 years ago. Is it possible the wound strings
were made improperly? I'm thinking that the bass/lower tenor section needs to
be rescaled, or at least from B flat 2 to E flat 3 (on treble bridge). I'm
looking for the most economical alternative here.