Pearl River strings hanging in agraffes

[pianotuna55 at comcast.net]

Thanks to all of you that responded.  I was already aware of these solutions because I do most of this, as needed, to all makes of pianos anyway.  From the top quality down to the lowest there is always some string voicing needed to improve the unisons, however I don't recall any specific brand that has consistently had this kind of problems in the agraffes and also in the capo area.  If Mark Wisner said that they have changed agraffe vendors and the problem has been corrected,  I haven't seen any of the new ones yet.  Looking forward to some because the pianos are selling here.

My Dr. said 'venting' your problems is good for your mental health.........


Thanks for listening.......
Howard
   

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Geoff Sykes" <thetuner at ivories52.com> 

I experience this same problem frequently. This question was asked of Mark Wisner, (while he was still with Pearl River), at one of our PTG chapter meetings. He did not mention the vendor problem with the agraffes. Instead, he suggested that part of your new piano prep should include not only the predictable pitch adjustment, but also making sure all the strings are seated. At all the bearing points. Once that work has been completed then you have the strings at about the place in the agraffe where they are going to be living for a long time. The next step is to "dress" the strings; gently pulling the strings up on the speaking side of the agraffes. Do this for all the strings. Even the upper plain wire strings that go under the capo bar instead of through an agraffe. In addition to better defining the termination point, and subsequently improving inharmonicity, you will also have reduced the angle at which the string passes through/under this termination point. This will greatly r
educe that friction induced "ping". And if you're careful you will also have accomplished leveling the strings to the hammers. Yes, after a year or so of tuning the problem does start to fade away, but my experience following Mark's recommendations has made those first tunings on new Pearl Rivers much easer for me. 

The same remedy holds for uprights as well, taking care to push down on the strings that go over termination points rather than under or through agraffes..

-- Geoff Sykes
-- Los Angeles





-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of pianotuna55 at comcast.net
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 3:02 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Pearl River strings hanging in agraffes


Hello list:
I do the service work for the local Pearl River dealer here in town.  For their size and price, they get a surprisingly decent sound.   There is a troublesome problem in tuning these brand new pianos: the plain wire strings "hang" in the agraffes.  The "ping" is not in every string but enough to make the tuning difficult.  You know what I mean.  I've dropped the tension before tightening and this helps some but the problem still exists.  I haven't contacted Pearl about this yet.

Now, am I the only one that is having this problem?
Howard Jackson
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