At 09:12 AM 4/30/98 -0400, you wrote: >The beckets should go TO the other side of the TP, not out the other >side. > >I have been bloodied several time with sharp ends sticking out, and if >you ever have to remove a tuning pin good luck. You cannot get enough >slack out of the coil to pull the becket out of the pin. > >I strongly feel it is an an indication of poor workmanship and ignorance >to see beckets sticking out the other side. > > Newton > > I will stoop to the "me too" comment, but add that the top loop of the coil should ideally pass half-way across the tuning pin hole, which it certainly can't if an end protrudes. I used to put the wire through to the edge of the hole, and then make the coil. Mark Story showed me that this led to a short becket and could result in wire creeping through later, though I never heard of any unstable strings I had put on. Now I put the wire through with _just_ enough sticking out so that when the coil is finished the wire fills the hole completely, but doesn't go any further. One can see the end of the wire right at the edge of the hole. I think that the secret to good beckets is to make the first bend with a good decided motion, and to squeeze the becket into the hole (with pliers) before the wire is pulled to pitch, thus avoiding a double bend or a wide bend. Then one should again squeeze the becket firmly when the piano is at pitch. If one is mending a string where the becket has broken off at the entry point by bending a new becket, it is critically important that the bend be at a good sharp 90 degree angle, and the becket must be _perfectly_ straight. Well, enough pontificating for a warm Thursday morning ... Susan Susan Kline P.O. Box 1651 Philomath, OR 97370 skline@proaxis.com "Getting there is only half as far as getting there and back." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
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