Broken Hammer Return Springs

[anrebe@zianet.com]

I've had the, um, "pleasure"...ahem, of tuning an old Whitney spinet in 
Nuevo Laredo that was 128 cents flat at A4.  Winter being the 
un-air-conditioned season of the year there was enough pin tension to hold a 
tune, barely.  Three passes did it, I do check the piano's tune in different 
octaves before leaving so those one pass jobs people talk about don't work 
for me.  (BTW, what is the difference between a "Concert Tuning" and a 
regular tuning?)
During the tuning I noticed several hammers that weren't always returning.  
Investigation revealed no apparent tension problems.  A closer look revealed 
that the hammer return spring was a little cockeyed.  H'mm that's easy, just 
reach in there with my handy-dandy damper spring regulator and move back 
into position and maybe "regulate" a little.  Here's where the "pleasure" 
enters in.  It broke off with the least bump and so did its neighbor.  
Further curious probing resulted in two more missing return springs at which 
point I decided to live and let live.
I had come to tune a piano after much desparate pleading and had decided not 
to porter all my tools across the border.  (That's a "grey" area that could 
place tools at risk.)
The pianer had a drop action so removing it was out of the time equation.  I 
had a few repair hammer springs in my tuning box so I improvised scewing 
them to the top of the spring rail.  Doesn't work well...  Three down and 
one to go.  The blinken screw broke off.  I'm flush out of the right size of 
screws and at 6 hours my time on that side of the border was up.
A quick explanation to the customer that I had come equipped to tune and 
that action repairs would have to wait for the next technician.  This was 
followed by an admonition to get the piano tuned again in two months at the 
most.  I wasn't going to check tune again before stepping out the door but I 
had a 60 cent pitch raise on a five-year-old Yamaha grand go sour into 
another pitch raise in just three months, so 128 cents...
They said, "Oh, no, we will wait till you return again."  And I was hoping 
not to see this little monster again.  I give them the bill and then learn 
why they couldn't get a technician to come see them from Monterray (distance 
is a problem too).  They had promised to be generous when trying to get me 
to come.  When I wouldn't budge they suggested that I should give them a 
discount next time.
I haven't decided that there will be a next time.  Assuming there is I would 
like to know a little more about replacing hammer return springs.  Having a 
drop action I'd plan on bringing two rubber bands and a length of string to 
contain the drop rods.  Removal and the eventuall reinstall should not be 
too problematic that way.  I'm presuming that the spring rail will be 
screwed onto the action.  Assuming its removal, how are the original springs 
held?  Would this be a temperature sensitive glue, say hold a soldering iron 
to the spring remnant and then pull it out?  How would you advise gluing the 
new ones in considering that I won't use hide-glue and the piano is old 
enough that this will be the last time this is addressed?  Are repair 
springs the better route to take?  I will plan on bring a drill to tap these 
first, that rail is hardwood! 

Andrew Anderson
Las Cruces, New Mexico 

Presently Annoyed in Old Mexico