String Removal during Restring with Original Pins

[David Love]

By unloading the board you can then wedge the board down and check the
bearing as well as compare the before and after to see how much flex you
are getting in the board.  On a Steinway you can change the bearing
somewhat by grinding or shimming the aliquots should you find a change is
in order and you don't want to pull the plate.  I would prefer to take all
the strings off to check the bridges and the bearing, dress the capo bar,
polish the aliquots, put some nice clean understring felt on the plate,
etc..  

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bill Ballard 
To: Pianotech
Sent: 10/4/2003 1:53:05 PM 
Subject: Re: String Removal during Restring with Original Pins


At 9:07 AM -0400 10/4/03, Jon Page wrote:
Will you be using a dummy pin?  My dummy pin has been cut off 1/4"
below the becket with a saw kerf up into the hole. This allows the
coil to drop off the dummy without having to expand the coil, that's
done to get it on. I don't use the drop-off method on bass wire, it's
too stiff so it facilitates installing the coil in the piano if the coil is
expanded initally to get it off the dummy pin.


I can't imagine doing this without a dummy pin, although my slot runs down
from the top to the becket hole. (It also drops into the 1.5" dia. dowel
handle I use for winding coils during a standard stringing.)


Unless you are pulling the plate, what's the point of comparing crown
strung and unstrung.


If I wanted to correct bearing I'd think all I'd need would be the loaded
bearing. I was attracted to the idea of completely unloading the board
because the bridge rise (observed by dial indicators hung from a beam
across the rim, and reading the bridge) would be a good measure of the
resilience of the board, and the next opportunity to measure it wouldn't
happen for many years.


Also the other argument for completely clearing all strings from the
bridge, would be that the judgement whether to resurface/renotch the
bridges needed to be done at the outset and based on seeing the whole
picture. As opposed to  getting through two or three wire sizes before
discovering (one wire size at a time) that in fact the stringing should
have been preceded by bridge repairs. The same goes for inspecting the capo
bar.


Tone quality is not an issue here. The piano played an entire month of
chamber music this summer and was the favorite of two Ds on stage. It just
happens to pop strings.


I assume this piano is in the customer's home.


Well sort of. It is his building but it's a 150-seat auditorium he put up
for this chamber music program http://www.yellowbarn.org/. The owner is
sitting in the front row (he's a micro-manager and I've gotten used to him
auditioning my tunings.)


So I'm thinking I'll remove all strings at the outset.


Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"You'll make more money selling my advice than following it"
    ...........Steve Forbes, quoting his father, Malcom
+++++++++++++++++++++