tubby bass string replacement tip

[Tvak@aol.com]

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List

I'm sure you've experienced replacing a string on a piano that has dead, 
tubby bass strings, ending up with a piano that has one bright, loud, sustaining 
key in the bass, next to the dull thuds on either side.   Perhaps there are 
other solutions to this problem (other than replacing the whole set), but I 
stumbled across something today that I thought I'd share.   (Purists read no 
further lest you be tarnished by the following.)

I was called in to tune the piano at a restaurant, and replace a bass string 
which had broken.   The piano was a Story & Clark (Samick) and is full of 
false beats in the treble and dead, tubby bass strings.   When I mic-ed the broken 
string, I found that I did not have one that size.   It was larger than a #1 
Schaff universal replacement.   My original plan was to replace the string 
with a universal and order a duplicate of the original to replace the universal.  
 But not having a universal the correct size, I thought I would just leave it 
as is, and return ASAP with the dupe.

But then I noticed the damper felt was becoming deformed from the hammer 
repeatedly striking it.   Without a string there, the damper would eventually 
become unusable and need to be replaced, because obviously the piano player could 
not stop himself from playing that low G, even if there was no sound.   

So I decided to replace it with the largest string I had and hope that it 
didn't sound too awful.

Well, when I tuned up the new string I was surprised to find that it matched 
its tubby neighbors perfectly.   Because the string was too small, the tension 
had to be lower to obtain the correct pitch.   Because of the lower tension, 
it sounded just as tubby as the rest of the section.

So, I'm considering leaving the universal in there, and not replacing it with 
a correctly sized string.   After all, a perfect duplicate of the original 
will stick out like a sore thumb.

Expecting flames from this one, I'd never do it on a Steinway, honest, 

Tom Sivak

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