I work on an unfortunately high percentage of low-worth pianos whose owners prefer minimal cost repair/maintenance alternatives. IMHO, when a new bass string is needed, in situations such as these, universal bass strings are a sensible choice. Better pianos and more demanding clients get factory or reproductions from Mapes or wherever. Just had to say that so I don't get chewed up over the universal bass string use issue. I also splice the old string back in whenever possible. Most of the universals I install I would rate as quite acceptable, given the piano, etc. But perhaps 10% or so that I install sound noticeably dead/dull. Is this something that I am doing? Is it something about the piano? Or are these strings soooooo cheap that 10% of them are bad? Any comments? Terry Farrell
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