Hello Susan, You're right, I've gotten lots of great responses from some obviously very experienced techs who have suffered over pianos just like mine! Thanks for responding to the looping questions. With all of the pinblock problems I may have, it looks like stringing will be cake, no matter how I do it!! I am familiar with hand looping for single ties but wanted to tell you about two things in case you didn't know. A good sewing/cloth store will have a thumb sleeve that works great for stringing. 3/4 of it is buckskin, the rest is some kind of elastic material to hold firmly on the thumb. They use it for threading through thick leather and cloth. Also, Bill Spurlock showed me how to make a jig for loop-making as you describe. The jig consists of a dowel (about 3"long) with a small hole drilled thru the center (hole big enough for the largest of gauges) and about 1/16" next to one side of the hole (toward one end of the dowel) a small screw is placed with about 1/16" of the screw still sticking up (not screwed all the way down). You first make the loop on a nail as you do, then the long speaking length of the wire is inserted into the hole till the loop meets the dowel. Then the loop is held with vise-grips while the dowel is turned. The loop section of the wire is caught by the screw head and as you turn the dowel, the coils are made. Very easy and fast. It makes tight coils every time and will only take 5 minutes to make. I did not know if these kinds of loops would be attractive to others, or if they would be appropriate for entire sections of pianos. Sorry if you knew about these two ideas, too, thanks again!! Lance Lafargue, RPT New Orleans Chapter Covington, LA lafargue@iamerica.net
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