String Breakage

[Matthew Todd]

I do agree with you here.  Older piano's are more durable this way than modern
piano's.  By the way, why do piano's have two strings per hitch pin (besides
Boesendorfer's of course)?  Can that design be changed to one string per hitch pin
in the process of rebuilding a particular piano?

Richard Moody wrote:

> If you do not break strings on your own piano and you play other pianos
> the same, then string breaking is not your fault. BTW early 1900's Story
> and Clark uprights are very good!  It is hard to say why some pianos break
> strings and others don't.  I took lessons from a Gospel player who could
> break strings at WILL.   He broke them on his own Yamaha U-1 (treble) and
> in consoles in churches, (bass).  He was big, and didn't like having to
> restrian himself so  much.
>         I put rented an old upright, (Benj Curtaz San Francisco,1897) to a night
> club that had trouble with broken strings in a modern rented piano.  They
> had a
> comedy act that "wasted" pianos.  They did manage to break two treble
> strings in 8 months on mine.
>         Another popular piano of the 70's and 80's was the Yamaha CP 70 and 80.
> Some players had problems with bass strings breaking.  I don't know why as
> the bass sounded so lousey.so why would they play it so loud?  Anyhow I
> cannot remember replacing a single treble string in the CPs.  In one show,
> Rocky Horror, the player broke at least 8 bass strings in 4 weeks on a CP
> 80.  Now a night club with a Yamaha C7, featuring rock groups broke treble
> strings, but I don't remember replacing any bass strings.  What used to
> bug me was that treble strings (on that C7) sometimes broke when I was
> tuning and I DO NOT pound.  I always played that one loud after tuning,
> but
> never broken a string doing that.  The Gospel player used to mention
> that sometimes the string broke when he "hardly touched it". I would say,
> "But you touched it hard other times."
>         The modern pianos seem unpredictable.  Maybe high tension, but I would
> put on a whole number lower and they would still break in the night club
> piano.  So you can say, "They don't make them like they used to"
> ---ricantbreakoldones
>
> ----------
> > From: Matthew Todd <mtodd@pianotech88.com>
> > To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > Subject: String Breakage
> > Date: Sunday, November 28, 1999 9:11 AM
> >
> Greetings to all!
>
> I have been following this topic somewhat.
>
> Our church's M & H, as some of you may know, breaks strings like crazy.
> This is a problem related to hard hammers, improper work done, etc.  My
> playing doesn't help matters any either.  I don't see how the damper
> pedal can attribute to string breakage.  Can someone please explain
> this?  Here is another question I have...
>
> How come I break strings so easily on the M & H, and I can practice and
> play the living daylights out of a 1901 Story and Clark upright
> (original parts), and not even stir the tuning job?  Now I understand
> that the M & H needs work done on it to prevent string breakage, longer
> tuning stability, etc., but this Story and Clark has been sitting and
> hardly had any work done to it (a tuning once a year), much longer than
> the M & H has or ever will.
>
> One more question in this missive...
> ..
> What can cause a hammer shank to crack from dynamic playing rather than
> the string breaking?