String breaker Too

[Don Mannino]

Phil,

With treble strings, the most important factor is hammer shape and playing style.  Worn hammers add a lot of stress to the strings, and shaping them once a year will reduce their string breakage.

If they are willing to spend a little money to cut down the breakage, replace all the wire in the affected area, smooth the capo bar while the strings are off, then shape the hammers and regulate the action.  For a days work they will have a huge improvement.

As for stability, as others have said if the pitch is shifting around then climate control might help.  If it's just hard playing, the hammer shaping and regulation might do a lot of good.

Check that the action brackets aren't going bad as well.  If the letoff is getting high and the hammers are jamming when played hard, string stress will also be high.

Don Mannino
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: PJR 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:52 PM
  Subject: String breaker Too


  Reading Wim's solution brought to mind a similar problem: I service a small(4'11") Weber(Korean) grand in a piano bar.  It is only three years old.  They have about five piano players that take turns beating the tar out of that piano every night.  I tune it every two weeks and it is horrendously out of tune with at least two broken treble strings each time.  The tuning pins seem normally tight ( I don't have a torque wrench) and I pound the tuning in good, but it is noticeably out of tune in a matter of days.  I know that this is not the quality of piano for this venue, but my question is,  would CA gluing the pins be a solution to keep this piano in tune, being only three years old?  I've never doped a piano this young. Is there any other solution that might stop this slippage?  Would  Wim's (et al.) solution of a monitor speaker be a viable solution?
   Phil Ryan
  Miami Beach


  Willem Blees wrote: 
    Jim

    Tell the church to put a monitor speaker behind the pianist. He/she is trying to play as loud as the drummer sitting next to him/her. But since he/she can't hear the piano over all the racket, he/she plays louder. A monitor speaker right behind him/her will help. But the piano player has to do his/her part, too. 


    Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
    Piano Tuner/Technician
    Honolulu, HI
    808-349-2943
    www.bleespiano.com
    Author of 
    The Business of Piano Tuning
    available from Potter Press
    www.pianotuning.com


    -----Original Message-----
    From: James Johnson <jhjpiano at sbcglobal.net>
    To: pianotech at ptg.org
    Sent: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 4:00 am
    Subject: String breaker


    I have a Kawai model 500 in a church which constantly has broken bass strings.  All the breakage occurs from B2 up to the break.  I am getting tired of ordering replacement strings and actually order them in multiple sets now so I have several replacements on hand.  I have deregulated the action to reduce power (no, the pianist hasn't noticed) and that helped a bit, but broken strings are still an almost weekly occurance.  Any suggestions?  Would rescaling that part of the piano help?
    Thanks, Jim Johnson

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