string replacement

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

Hi J:

Remove the broken coil from the tuning pin and also remove the coil from
the other tuning pin shared by that one wire. Back out each tuning pin
one full turn. Reel out enough wire to go down from one T-pin to the 
hitchpin and back up past the other. Add about 10" and cut the wire from 
the reel. Plan to bend the wire in the middle.

The E4 hitchpin will probably be underneath the Bass strings, so if you have
a pair of alligator jaw visegrips, after you put a 180 degree bend in 
the correct size wire (estimate the wire length liberally - any excess wire
you may cut off later is small change), hook the wire over the hitchpin
and clamp it in position with the alligator jaws. Pull both ends of the wire
up past the pressure bar and over the tuning pins. Measure each wire 3"
beyond its respective tuning pin and cut. This extra wire is used in making
the coil around the tuning pin. It helps to put a slight bend in the 
wire to get it to feed under the pressure bar where you can grab it with
long nose pliers. After you  have a little tension on the wire, you can with
the long nose pliers fit the strings around their respective bridge pins.
I like to make my coils on a separate tuning pin (the coils will look 
nicer). A stringing crank is handy to use in making the coils, but it 
can be done quite well by just using your tuning hammer. Wind on 3 coils
it will back off to 2 1/2 coils.

Then with the nose pliers, I lift the becket and remove the extra
tuning pin and place the coil over the real t-pin. With the nose pliers, I
can then feed the becket into the becket hole of the t-pin. Do the same for
the other end of the wire and the other t-pin. Begin to tighten the two
tuning pins and with a string hook or the edge of a soft screwdriver lift
the bottom of each coil as soon as you get enough tension on to hold the
coil tight. Don't forget to retrieve your alligator jaw visegrips and check
that the strings did not jump away from their bridge pins. Seat the 
strings at the hitchpin before you put complete tension on. Also space the
strings before full tension is applied. You can save some extra tunings on
the new strings if you seat the strings at the bridge pins, rub the strings
down with a piece of wood, and tamp the coils after the strings are brought
up to pitch (this will lower the pitch about 1/2 step) then bring up the
pitch again about 1/2 step high and let set while you tune the rest of the
piano or do some regulation work. Just before you leave, tune the strings
properly. If this is an out-of-town call, put a front rail punching between
the two new strings so that the rapid out-of-tuneness will not be so
obvious until you return the next time to tune the piano.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999 JSmith3109@AOL.COM wrote:

> I know that replacing strings is an easy repair for some of you, but I have 
> just not had a lot of experience doing this. I have to replace an E-4 string 
> in a Kohler & Campbell console for a church. 
> Any tips, thoughts, caveats, etc. would be most appreciated. Thanks in 
> advance. 
>