Tightening coils on sloppy restringing

[Jon Page]

Sounds to me like this piano is a candidate for rebuilding.

A stringing hook would be used to pull the wire up.  Lower the
tension enough to move the wire and raise it and reapply tension.
Do this for each pin. Then drive the pins to desired height and tune,

As far as the block dragging on the screws, make sure the action
brackets are not shimmed. A light filing on the heads and planing of the block
would ease the this interaction.

If the pins are loose and driving them does not help enough, I would install
a new block because I would guess the block installation is as sloppy as
the restringing.  If it were repinned during the stringing, them definately a
new block.

Like I said, sounds to me like this piano is a candidate for rebuilding.

Regards,

Jon Page

At 11:08 AM 5/1/99 -0400, you wrote: 
>
> I recently inspected a Steinway O that had been "rebuilt" a couple of years
> ago in another state. The wire protrudes through the pins about !/8"+, pins
> lean back at 8 degrees (guessing) and the wire spirals down the pin, some
> with 4-5 turns, to end at pretty much plate level. If the coils were tight
> the pins would be a good 1/4" too high. My problem; the coil lifting tools I
> possess are difficult to impossible to get in position with access
limited by
> adjacent pins (when I restring I tighten coils as I go and put on enough
> tension to keep them in place). Does anyone know if there a tool available
> that would make this easier or have any ideas on how to efficiently tighten
> these coils and tap the pins down to make piano tunable? (The pins that I
> tried are almost too loose so I'm not worried about ending up too torqued).
> This is only the beginning of problems with this piano (example-I couldn't
> get the action out because the hammer flange screws were jammed into the
> lowered pinblock) but if any one has any suggestions on improving the coil
> situation I would appreciate your input.
>  
> Garold Beyer 




Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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