[pianotech] Oversized tuning pins

[Israel Stein]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:33:55 -0800 "David Ilvedson" <ilvey at sbcglobal.net> 
wrote:
>
> Going  up 2 sizes..."just to be on the safe side"...'-[
>
> David Ilvedson, RPT
> Pacifica, CA  94044
>   
David and all,

The irony is that there are places and conditions where going up 2 sizes 
is pretty much standard procedure. All the years that I lived and worked 
in Boston, that's what we did whenever restringing a piano without 
replacing the pinblock. The climate there and the prevalence of 
forced-air heating in New England homes beat those pinblocks up so badly 
that if you only went up one size, you would have loose tuning pins 
within a year or two of restringing (if not sooner). Now that I am 
living and working in Northern California, often the block is still 
perfectly fine when the strings are shot (as often happens in pianos 
that live close to the ocean or in  the fog belt). Even going up one 
size can often result in overly tight tuning pins. So one size increase 
is the maximum I dare do here - and often enough restringing with the 
old pins (using a dummy pin for making coils) yields perfectly fine 
tuning pin torque.

The point is that one should not blindly follow some set procedure, but 
assess the conditions and  determine tuning pin size accordingly.

Israel Stein 


> ----- Original message ----------------------------------------
> From: "Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft" <AlliedPianoCraft at hotmail.com>
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Received: 11/29/2009 8:31:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Oversized tuning pins
>
>
>   
>> Scott,
>>     
>
>   
>> Yes, that's one of the possible causes, but there are others.
>> Removing the old pins and creating to much heat (burning the hole). New 
>> tuning pins to large. And I'm sure there are hacks out there that can screw 
>> it up in other ways.
>>     
>
>   
>> Al
>>     
>
>
>   
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Scott Helms, RPT" <tuner at helmsmusic.net>
>> Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 11:05 AM
>> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
>> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Oversized tuning pins
>>     
>
>   
>>> I have been told that the reason restrung pianos have this issue is that
>>> whoever restrung it didn't ream the holes in the pinblock before driving
>>> in the new pins. Does anybody know if that's true? Just curious.
>>>
>>> Scott
>>> ------
>>> Scott A. Helms, Registered Piano Technician
>>> 480-818-3871
>>> www.helmsmusic.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Actually, I had a situation like this 6 or 7 years ago on a restrung
>>>> Steinway O that was completely untunable. I did the basically same thing
>>>> except I lowered tension, popped out the beckets and backed all the pins
>>>> out with a drill. Then replaced the beckets and drove the pins down to
>>>> their original height. They all tuned very nicely afterwards and it only
>>>> took about 4 hours total. Of course there was a follow up tuning later
>>>> in the week....
>>>>
>>>> --Dave
>>>>   New Orleans
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> David Ilvedson wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> Well, that has never worked for me...but then I didn't do it for 7
>>>>> hours!   Jeez...
>>>>>
>>>>> David Ilvedson, RPT
>>>>> Pacifica, CA  94044
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original message ----------------------------------------
>>>>> From: "Leslie Bartlett" <l-bartlett at sbcglobal.net>
>>>>> To: pianotech at ptg.org
>>>>> Received: 11/27/2009 7:21:45 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Oversized tuning pins
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>>>> I have a church client which (who?) purchased a 9-foot Shigeru, and two
>>>>>> Estonias.  One of the Estonias was so bad that every pin popped, and I
>>>>>> finally told them it was un-tunable. Short story....  I told them I
>>>>>> thought
>>>>>> I could fix it, so called the guys from whom they got it and was to
>>>>>> have a
>>>>>> shot. Seven hours later jerking pins back and forth, there were only
>>>>>> about
>>>>>> two pins popping and the rest just quite tight.
>>>>>> les Bartlett Piano Service
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