String breakage in Seiler pianos

[Avery Todd]

Thanks, Ed.

That's what I was "trying" to say. You just said it much better. :-)
I've had an unusual amount of strings break on our new Kawai loan
pianos this past year! Most of it on one/two pianos that one particular
pianist practices on. Very muscular/bodybuilder type! :-)

Avery

At 05:25 PM 5/27/05, you wrote:
>Andre writes:
>
><< Strings usually break because of a malfunction in the action.  A badly
>regulated action causes a pianist to use excessive energy, and a flattened 
>and
>hardened hammer makes it worse.  If you very carefully (and with love) 
>file the
>worn hammers without
>
>taking off too much, and you then make a beautiful regulation, you will
>
>notice that less strings will break.
>
>     This hasn't been my experience!  I think strings usually break 
> because of
>metal fatigue, which is the result of repeatedly reaching their plastic
>deformation limit.  This may be a problem with scaling, (% of elastic 
>limit), or
>simply being hit very hard.   I haven't noticed the hammers playing too 
>much of
>a part in it.  Cases in point:
>
>     We have a Bechstein at the school that breaks a lot of strings.  The
>pianist is a large feller and plays a lot of Rachmaninoff.  I originally 
>thought
>it was because the hammers were hard.  After installing new hammers, (Renner
>Blues), careful regulation,  and voicing it down to a mellowness of some 
>degree,
>the strings continued to break with uninterrupted frequency, (no pun
>intended).  So, I restrung the top two sections.  The strings continued to 
>break at
>the same rate!
>     We have two new Yamaha C2's  in the same room.  One of them is mellower
>than the other, and gets more play.  It breaks strings with regularity under
>the hands of some of the more energetic students.
>     We have a very bright Steinway D that is played constantly. I 
> restrung it
>in 1984 with Mapes wire.  It has never broken a string (20 years and several
>sets of hammers).
>     All in all, I think the breakage is more due to the use or the scaling
>than the hammer's or regulation's condition.  I have a number of other 
>examples
>where strings in pianos with flat hammers don't break as often as some of
>their counterparts.
>     One sure-fire way to break strings is to repeatedly play very fast
>repetitions at FFF.  I think the impact occuring while the string is still
>oscillating from a previous blow may be the culprit, and I think hitting 
>them very hard
>with the pedal down exacerbates the problem.
>Regards,
>
>Ed Foote RPT
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>
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