string breakage

Thomas Cole tcole@cruzio.com
Fri, 03 Dec 2004 22:04:23 -0800


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Don wrote:

>Hi Tom,
>
>What might be these ways?
>
>  
>
>>Since then, I've learned more subtle ways of getting
>>    
>>
>the string
>  
>
>>to move and "self-lubricate" 
>>

Don,

First of all, I don't drop the pitch nearly as low as a fourth or fifth 
as I was taught - it causes the string to slip around the hitch pin and 
I would have to go back and touch up the previous pin every other pin. 
It might help to polish rust off the bearing surfaces. But usually I 
bring it flat a little, maybe 10 - 20 cents, and if the pitch drops as 
soon as I start to move the tuning pin, I have some confidence to bring 
it up.

But if I'm nervous about the strings breaking, due to evidence of 
previous breakage or extreme age, or I can feel a place where I'm giving 
it more pull but the pitch is not following, I drop it further than 
normal and bring it up a couple of times to "lubricate" the bearing 
points (polish the rust off?). If the rust is on the string at the V-bar 
point, however, then maybe it's best to run the string around the hitch 
pin enough to where it's not a problem. Maybe that's why I was taught to 
do it that way.

Another technique I do is something I learned from Jim Coleman. Using an 
upright piano as an example, put the tuning lever at a 3:00 position and 
turn the pin by tugging down on the lever. This moves the pin without 
raising the string tension above the target pitch. Then you can 
un-flagpole the pin and listen for the pitch to rise. The same idea 
applies to a grand.

Nothing is sure-fire but if these techniques can save, or even delay, a 
string repair now and then, they're worth doing.

Tom Cole

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