I thought I'd pass on a neat little trick I recently learned when I couldn't locate a decent pair of cutters in the shop. When destringing a piano the traditional way of removing the wire is of course using a large set of cutters; single, double jointed, or whatever. The basic problems, however, are that its slow and leads to a good deal of hand pain by the time you are finished. Furthermore there is always risk of the wire popping back in your face as it snips, and the hardness of the wire is a sure-fire way to ruin a good set of cutters in no time. Okay, try this! Let down the tension as you normally would. Use a becket breaker to free the strings from the pins. Then take your Dremel tool and set it up with the fiber cut-off wheel. Use two wheels together on the spindle and it will last a lot longer. Let her rip and away you go! start in the tenor section and work your way across, cutting on the bridge side of the agraffs. It cuts like butter and you can have them all done in no time! Depending on the piano you may be able to cut the capo section in front, otherwise flip it around and cut from the back side. Cut the bass section just like the tenor. By the time your finished the wheels will be pretty well worn down but they cost pennies and your done in a flash. Pull the wires out, yank the remains from the tuning pins with a pair of needle nose, and your done. All that remains it to remove the pins. How's that for a time saving tip!! I think I did it in about 45 minutes, including letting the tension off the piano. Rob Goodale, RPT University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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