pin comparisons

[John Delacour]

At 5:37 PM -0800 1/25/02, larudee@pacbell.net wrote:
>All the more justification for oversize pins that are oversize only 
>up to the coils
>(4 mm. below the becket) and original size (or smaller) the rest of 
>the way up.

I was at a colleague/customer's shop the other day browsing through 
his latest stock of rag tag and bobtail pianos and he drew my 
attention to an old German overstrung he was selling after a quick 
lick and a promise.  It looked as though the pins went into a bush in 
the string plate, but he told me that what looked like the bushing 
was in fact the pin itself.  The length of pin going into the plate 
and the wrest-plank was threaded and about 9 mm. in diameter but the 
protruding length was just like a normal pin.  He said it tuned fine. 
I'd never heard of the maker and never come across such a design 
before.  Apart from this feature, the piano was nothing special.

JD