Painted String Rendering

[Greg Newell]

Definitely a good reason to restring. What is the string angle from capo or
agraffe to that cast bar before the tuning pins like? On my current project I
can only imagine from the string angle present that this thing must have been a
bear to tune. I will be altering it somewhat. Not too drastic but I do hope to
make it easy to tune even after the strings aren't quite as fresh as when I
finish. Food for thought.

Greg

Farrell wrote:

> I tuned a 1940s Baldwin L today. It has always been a nasty piano to tune.
> Today was no exception. Especially in the upper tenor. You pull up a bit, no
> change in pitch, pull a bit more, no change, pull a bit more and BOING you
> are 20 cents sharp. Lube the heck out of the felt and agraffe with Protek.
> No change. After staring at it a while I realized that some clown had pained
> the plate and of course painted the agraffes. The felt areas and other
> string areas with no plate below were taped off, but all the string segments
> with plate below were painted gold. So now after a few decades of pulling
> the strings a little tighter each time, I suspect we now have the painted
> section inside the agraffe - and I think that is causing the rendering
> problem. Does this make sense? Strings have a fair bit of corrosion on them
> also. I had never run into such a stubborn case like this.
>
> Sounds like we have a good reason to restring. Yes?
>
> Terry Farrell

--
Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net