Broken string repair

[Carl Teplitski]

Replaced a string on a Baldwin upright yesterday. Hitch pin was under bass strings. If it was a single string attached to pin, would be much easier, but
having to turn string into up position was a very difficult thing to do. Made a guess as to the spot where bend should be, and was able to get wire to stay on because coil memory wanted to bend towards plate. After threading wire up, I found that pin was loose. Stopped and replaced pin with next size. Had to release tension on wire a couple of times in order to place wire on proper side of bridge pins. Of course this is not the end of problem, as now I tuned strings sharp to try and anticipate stretch. Will wait to hear of results after weekend. Piano in a Church where
someone will surely notice that this particular A# has a wierd unison. Couldn't mute, as it would leave only one string playing. Tuned to octave on sharp side of pure, and left.
One time I found two strings on one hitch pin, with individual termination coils. At the time seemed like a good idea, much easier to get on. Bridge pins seemed to isolate them, and I didn't hear anything wierd. ??????????  Not sure about this idea.

Carl

Farrell wrote:

> Sorry, Hazen, no words of wisdom from me, just a related question!
>
> I serviced an Aeolian spinet yesterday: 7 bass strings and two treble strings. The treble strings were both right at the last treble damper - so like E6 or so. This puts the hitch pins a few inches above the bottom of the wippens and the bridge pins smack dab in the middle of the action (height-wise). I used the approach that I was much too talented a piano technician that I needed to remove the action just to replace two treble strings (although I have used that approach in the past). After about 45 minutes of struggling and cussing (quietly) I finally got them both in place, but it was no simple feat getting the strings through the bridge pins, etc.
>
> How do other folks approach this task? Remove action? Use really nifty techniques that Terry Farrell has no clue of? Scrunch and cuss (quietly)?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
> P.S. I'm going to visit my girlfriend with the tuning complaint on her Whitney spinet this morning.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <HazenBannister@cs.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 9:55 PM
> Subject: Broken string repair
>
> > List,
> >   I had a string break yesterday on a spinet,during a pitch raise.It was the
> > last wound string on the treble side.I spliced the string with no problem,and
> > could not get it under the pressure bar,without it going under the felt.I
> > twisted,bent,tried different angles,everything with no luck.So I cut the
> > felt,pulled the wire on top,and pushed the felt back together,and pulled it
> > up to pitch.Does anyone have a trick for this problem?
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Hazen Bannister
> >