String Breakage of the Third Kind

[Stephen Airy]

Before I restrung my upright, I remember breaking middle C (shared with
C#) at the speaking side of the bridge pin once while playing.  I noticed
when I was playing C once that the unison was out of tune, and the next
thing I knew the string had snapped at the bridge pin.

Speaking of breaking strings, has anyone ever had a bass string break IN
the winding, or had the winding AND the core wire break and the two
segments separate from each other?  Or, had the same string (bass or
treble) break in two different places at the same time?  Also, how much
of a hazard could it potentially be to a performer if a fairly long
string that isn't under other ones breaks at the hitch pin or at the
bridge?

> I'm used to a tuning break being right at the point where the wire 
> leaves the tuning pin coil, and a playing break right at the 
> capo/aggraphe. But twice today, on the same piano, I had to put on 
> fresh wire because string had broken at the speaking length side of 
> the bridge, one apiece in the 5th and 6th octaves. The piano is a 
> Steinway M which I restrung eight years ago. It's in the office of 
> the music director of a local private school, and it's being used by 
> a summer chamber music program.
> 


-- 
  Stephen Airy
  stephenairy@fastmail.fm