String breakage in Seiler pianos

[antares]

On the other hand, why is it that I have experienced this so often?
I agree that there may be a a number of reasons for string breakage, of 
which brutal force is one, but in my experience a high milage of brutal 
force combined with wear and tear of the action makes strings break 
faster.
There are always exceptions to anything, so we all could be right in a 
way on this topic.

EAR


On 28-mei-05, at 1:33, Porritt, David wrote:

> Ed:
>
> That's pretty much been my experience too.  I have found temporary
> relief by restringing the top two sections though.  Over winter break I
> restrung the top two sections of both of our large recital instruments
> (a D & a CFIIIS).  They both made it through the spring semester with 
> no
> breakage.
>
> On a side note, I still think that string breaking is not a sign of bad
> technique or brutal players.  The successful players will tend to press
> hard to get as wide a dynamic range as possible and at times strings
> will break.  It's not evil, it's getting the most out of the 
> instrument.
> As I've said before, their job is to get good reviews, our job is to
> repair the damage.
>
> dave
>
> David M. Porritt
> dporritt@smu.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
> Behalf Of A440A@aol.com
> Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 5:25 PM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: String breakage in Seiler pianos
>
> 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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>
friendly greetings
from
André Oorebeek

www.concertpianoservice.nl

"Where music is no harm can be"