some days you get what you ask for

[David Skolnik]

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David Stahl wrote:

>I was hoping for the best, but it was the usual 8-10 cent late-summer 
>pitch raise.

David...where do you live?  What scenario would require that you RAISE 
pitch in the late summer?  I think it more common to have to lower pitch by 
that time.


David Skolnik


At 01:39 AM 10/3/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>List,
>
>Friday was certainly an interesting day on the job.  First piano was an 
>old Erhard upright, a nice old box made in 1919, pretty good shape.  It 
>had a broken high treble string on it, which I'd been aware of, and I 
>replaced it no problem.
>
>Next piano, Acrosonic, circa 1950s.  Pitch raise, twang, G#2 wound bicord 
>snapped. A perfect candidate for one of the universal bass strings a lug 
>around.  As usual, spinning off excess copper was the most time consuming 
>part of this job.  Again, no real problem.
>
>I was thinking about how much I've improved in various repairs, thanks to 
>many tips gleaned from this list and elsewhere in the PTG.  This type of 
>repair was once something I dreaded, now it's just something I do in the 
>line of duty.  "But," I told myself, "don't get cocky.  How long's it been 
>since you've replaced a long wire in an understrung section of a 
>piano?"  It had been awhile.
>
>Which brings me to the next piano:  Steinway, a regular client, a nemesis 
>piano that always finds a way to lengthen the appointment beyond an 
>acceptable length.  A 1915 or so M re-whatevered badly a couple of decades 
>ago.  I was hoping for the best, but it was the usual 8-10 cent 
>late-summer pitch raise.  No problem, at least until I got to 
>A3.  Twang.  The A#3-A3 wire snapped.  Went to the car, got stringing 
>stuff including tube to get string onto hitch pin.  In the failing light 
>of the day, I got the job done, but time would have been saved had I 
>brought in my shop light so I could see better to route the wire through 
>the bridge pins.
>
>The upside:  3 strings on the day, no bloody finger tips.
>
>The weirdness:  Haven't had a string break in a few months.  Why did they 
>all gang up on me on one day???
>
>Tip #1:  putting some tension on the wire makes it MUCH easier to get the 
>string placed properly around the bridge pins in the understrung areas.
>
>Tip #2:  Lighting is a good thing when doing this sort of job!
>
>Thanks for reading,
>
>Dave Stahl

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