Overlapping strings

[Dave Nereson]

   ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Barbara Richmond
  To: Pianotech
  Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 5:35 PM
  Subject: Overlapping strings
   This past week I tuned a Cable Nelson console which suffered from a case
of strings that overlap in the tuning pin section, making it a tad difficult
to set unisons (or anything else for that matter).  You know, you get one
string set, tune the next, and it throws the previous one off again.  Grrr.
Would it help to dab a bit of Protek on them?  Would it be too risky being
that close to the pinblock?  Has anyone done this before?
  Thanks for your help.
  Barbara Richmond, RPT
  There nothing like starting up a business again,
  somewhere near Peoria, IL.

    Yeah, I haven't figured out what to do in those cases.  Some Kimballs
are really bad about that -- strings that "weave" through the tuning pins.
    Sometimes you can unhook the becket from the string and either back the
pin out or turn it in farther so the offending string doesn't sit on the
coils of another pin.   I figure it's the flagpoling of a pin upon whose
coils another string is resting that makes that string go back out of tune
after you've supposedly already set it.
    But sometimes a string bears against another pin even tho' it's not
sitting on the coils.  Not much you can do there, except maybe drill for a
plug and move the other tuning pin.
    I just try to determine which strings will be affected the most by
tuning their unison-mates, and tune them first; then tune the ones that will
be affected least last.  And and I point it out to the customer so they know
that factories aren't perfect.
    I doubt Protek or Vaseline would help much.
    --David Nereson, RPT