Breakdown measurements

[Farrell]

Ron is correct: "Communication between you and the string maker is where it's at here, so you are both looking at the same thing."

I have used the bass making services of David Sanderson and James Arledge. Both these string makers have their preferred measurement detail methods. Both will provide you with THEIR tape measures for measuring from hitch pin, etc. It is difficult for two people to independently measure from the back of a hitch pin to the forward bridge pin mid-point. That is why they will supply you with their tape that has a loop on the end - the loop goes over the hitch pin. Their tapes are made so that the string maker will be able to make your strings very accurately.

With my very first restringing, Dave Sanderson was able to make windings on all the bass strings come to about 1/8" to 1/4" away from the string terminations.

Bottom line: talk to your string maker BEFORE you do all your measurements.

And I highly recommend having a good rescaler rescale your piano - some say the lower-end pianos are not worth doing it to - but these are the very ones that will often benefit the most! David Sanderson has done excellent work for me and others.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: Breakdown measurements


> 
> >What part of the hitch pin are you guys measuring to?
> >The inside of the loop or the center line? I'm starting to think that 
> >since the hitch pin is tilted  and therefore oval to the string, 
> >eyeballing the loop is the better way.
> >I have made the pattern on a piece of packaging paper, rubbing with the 
> >flat side of a carpenters pencil, but that only shows the tip of the pin. 
> >I guess that is what the measurements fill in that the pattern doesn't show.
> >Keith Roberts
> 
> If your pattern is made by sanding through the paper, or whacking it with a 
> rubber mallet so it goes over the hitches and bridge pins, the string maker 
> can work directly off of an exact representation of the piano and decide 
> for himself where to measure from. That's one of the advantages of doing it 
> this way, so you just have to supply core and outer wrap diameters and bare 
> end lengths. If you just want to send measurements without a pattern, ask 
> your string maker where he wants the length measurements from. 
> Communication between you and the string maker is where it's at here, so 
> you are both looking at the same thing.
> 
> Ron N
> 
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