String breaker

[Chris White]

I had a friend with the same problem on his piano:  broken bass and tenor
strings on a regular basis.  After he complained a few times to me about the
tuner he was using (not myself but a competent colleague) I decided I'd
check out his piano.  He plays extremely hard because he is deaf in one ear,
but that shouldn't cause strings to break at this rate.  Hammer travel was
off a bit but not, in my opinion, to the point of causing broken strings.  I
had the client sit and play for me and being a piano instructor for many
years immediately knew what the problem was:  His poor pedaling technique
was heating up the strings.  After giving him a 20 minute lesson on proper
pedaling (he was amazed that there was such a thing for he had never been
taught this before) he hasn't broken a string since.  That was two years ago
- no strings broken, and he used to break one every couple months or so.
You're problem may be the same.  It may be as simple as having them learn
the proper way to pedal without heating up the strings.

Chris White
WhiteSounds Piano Tuning & Repair
Medicine Hat, Ab
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