Hi Phil: I usually stop and reconsider what I'm trying to do if as many as 2 strings break. It has been a long time since one broke. The one last week on a Kawai grand does not count since the becket just finally pulled loose. There was only a 1/8" becket length. I repaired it (formed a longer becket and put it back on). Since you mentioned you are a newbie, there is a technique which will avoid a lot of breakage. Short quick nudges of the tuning lever are much safer than the steady pull in raising a string. Even at that, there are times when they will break. In any case it is not your fault. Strings ordinarily should stand raising a half step above the regular pitch. Tuning grands from the left handed position can postpone breakage occuring since you don't have to pull the string as far above pitch to get it to stay where you want it. Jim Coleman, Sr. On Thu, 2 Jul 1998 DGPEAKE@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 98-07-02 21:35:52 EDT, you write: > > << > I'm a newbie at tuning and ran across this situation- I was tuning an > old (1920's) Edward Mason grand with the original strings. A quarter of > the way through, pop! broke a treble string. No problem, I need the > practice installing strings.Then pop!, another one. > Pop...pop...pop...all the way up to ten broken treble strings, five or > six notes apart, before I quit. Yes, I used liquid wrench on the vbar > and agraffes. My question is- how many strings should one break before > declaring the piano untunable and in need of a restringing or > rebuilding. The owner is only interested in having it "tuned." Any > advice? > > Phil Ryan > Associate, PTG > pryan2@bellsouth.net > > > Are you charging for the strings you break? 3 or 4 in a row is time to stop > and have a serious discussion about a stringing job, or replacing the piano. > > Dave Peake, RPT > Portland, OR >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC