pinblocks and materials

[D.L.Bullock]

I know of two pinblock replacements.

There was the Mason Hamlin screw stringers.  They wrapped the string around
a hook of a J shaped screw and then pulled the J up by way of a nut that was
adjustable by a tuning wrench that was kept with the piano.  It was VERY
stable, but after the years the brass that the pieces were made of
crystallized as did the combs that separated the J-bolts and kept them in
place.  After the more than 100 years since that system was discontinued you
need new ones made to restring them.  I have three of these pianos but have
not gotten around to restringing them yet.  Anyone know of a source for new
screw stringer bolts, nuts, and combs?  I need to know.

There was also the Wurlitzer system.  I have a console from the thirties
that looks normal, but you take off a board behind the "pinblock" to find
there is no pinblock.  The tuning pins go through the cast iron and the
normally threaded end is split.  There is a brass wedge driven into the
split.  This piano had a couple of loose tuning pins, and I found I could
not remove the pin.  I opened the back to find the odd arrangement.  I drove
the brass wedges in on those pins and voila! they were tight again.  It
works really well.  I don't know why more pianos were not made using this
system.

D.L. Bullock  St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com <http://www.thepianoworld.com>



-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Kinsler [mailto:kinsler33@hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 11:10 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: pinblocks and materials



But I really wonder if the pinblock couldn't use some better engineering.
The traditional laminated pinblocks are marvels of craftsmanship, but my
reading of Reblitz' text makes it sound like they're an eternal cause of
grief.  Have other schemes been tried?  I'm thinking of a brass block with
tapered steel pins held tight by nuts underneath the block.  Or a cast-iron
pinblock with brass bushings and the tapered pins.  I'm sure that this has
been thought of many times.  What were the problems?  Were there ever plates
that had an integrated iron pinblock cast into them?

Mr Bullock's analysis of the failure of felt also led me to wonder if
synthetic felts have ever been used for hammers or bearings.  I believe that
there are nylon and dacron felts.  There's no great guarantee that these
would be vastly more stable over sixty years or so than traditional wool
felts, but perhaps they have been tried.

M Kinsler