Breaking Bass String

Christopher D. Purdy purdy@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 18:07:31 -0500


john,

i doubt you have something cutting the string.  sounds like a scale
problem.  i suggest that you send the original string AND it's bi chord
mate off to be duplicated.  are they the original bass strings?  someone
may have replaced them or changed the scale.  are you sure the string that
broke was original?  it is even possible the original scale was not that
hot.

chris

>I could use some suggestions for a bass string problem I'm having.
>
>The piano is a 1920's upright in otherwise decent condition.  While
>tuning it, I broke a bass string two or three notes down from the tenor
>break--it's one of a bichord pair.  The string broke at the upper stagger
>pin between the tuning pin and speaking length, leaving inadequate core
>wire to tie.  I pulled out a matching universal replacement and prepared
>it, installed it, and this string broke at the pin as well, as I was
>pulling it up.  I tried this with two more replacement strings, with the
>same result before I gave up in puzzlement.
>
>I checked the area around the stagger pin as well as I could, but found
>nothing out of the ordinary, at least that I could see or feel.
>
>Is it possible there's a metal burr or something else that's cutting into
>the core wire enough to weaken it at that point and cause it to break?
>
>Anybody have any other suggestions related to this, especially how I can
>get a string to stay in there at pitch without breaking?  Obviously, I'm
>missing something.
>
>Thanks
>
>John Granholm
>PTG Associate and longtime list-lurker
>Roseburg  OR


-Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.   School of Music  Ohio University  Athens OH

-purdy@oak.cats.ohiou.edu   (614) 593-1656    fax# (614) 593-1429




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