I had a fellow over here break (I wrote it all on the service record(s) I had placed inside of the piano) over 100 strings on a Yamaha C-7 over a period of years. He broke bass, tenor and treble wires. At some point, the church or he, contacted Yamaha and complained. Of all things, NOT expected, Yamaha replaced the piano for them which they most certainly did not have to do. However, as I expected, he continued breaking strings on this brand new piano too. In fact, he broke strings on every single piano that he’s played on. Upon listening to his performance many different times, it was obvious that he was the problem, not the piano. He beat the tar out of that poor thing. He had two large speakers on both sides of the piano bench facing him, BLARING the music directly at him. It still wasn’t loud enough for him. He eventually developed carpel tunnel. (Hee-hee) If you speak to him with your back toward him, he cannot hear you and does not answer. He is consequently half deaf (DUH!!! ) and no matter how many times I tried explaining it to the church and to him that it was HIS FAULT strings were breaking, he refused to accept that. I tried deregulating the action as Tom mentioned below. It did not help at all. He just played harder. After years of this, he finally started blaming me. Unfortunately, the church believed him. No matter that strings did not break while I tuned it and no matter that I had other techs come in when I couldn’t to tune it. They still believed him. After all, he was the “music director and knows all about pianos.” You know? I asked Yamaha and the dealership to write a letter to the church on my behalf. They both readily did so placing blame directly where it needed to be placed, on him. It still did not help. So, after 30 years of servicing for that mega church, I figured it was no longer worth my effort or my time so I fired them flat out and quit servicing for them. Here’s the clincher though. The piano that was at this church, was sold to another church and has been there for about 12 years now. It has not broken one single wire since this person no longer plays on it and I still service this piano. Go figure huh? I guess you could say, our response was falling on “deaf ears.” Jer From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Tom Driscoll Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 9:52 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] string breakage, distressed underlevers Joseph, He probably didn't break strings @ Julliard because he was changing instruments and the abuse was spread among many instead of just one victim. It seems that he won't accept that it's his style causing the problem. Good luck on that front. As to what might be done , I would decrease the shift so all three strings are still struck . He will still get a tonal change as the hammer will hit the strings between the grooves. My feeling is that three strings taking the blow will better absorb the impact that the two had to endure. Diminishing power through regulation or should I say deregulation will help.Increasing letoff - drop and decreasing blow will disconnect him from the hammer earlier and lessen the impact . Of course pianissimo play will be out the window and aftertouch will change depending on the degree in which each of the aforementioned dimensions are moved. It's kind of a slippery slope of consequences when the action is put out of wack like this but it's worth a try. Bottom line-- I'm glad He's your customer and not mine ! Tom Driscoll RPT http://www.tomdriscollpianoservice.com/ http://www.tomdriscollpianoservice.com/tools.html Nov 9, 2010 09:24:50 AM, pianotech at ptg.org wrote: Dear list, I have a customer who is a serious, accomplished and punishing player-- plays hours a day and loves to play HARD. One of his pianos is a Yamaha G-1 that constantly breaks wound strings in the upper bass section (not during tuning, but when being played). They always break at the agraffe. It's usually the right (facing keyboard) string but sometimes the left. (He also likes to play while holding the shift on-- softly sometimes, but more often hard) (he likes the sound). I've had Schaff make up some of their "low tension" strings (thicker core wire, thinner copper). This didn't help. The piano's in good regulation and has a set of Brooks Abel hammers that I put on. They're not terribly hard. Here's my problem: this gentleman thinks there must be something wrong with the piano, whereas I have explained to him that such breakage is common enough when there is loud playing and heavy use; that the wires will suffer cumulative fatigue at their terminations (especially the end towards the hammer strike point) and that's why they break. And that it's REALLY asking for trouble to play HARD when the shift is engaged!! He also occasionally breaks high treble wires on this instrument, and breaks many, many treble wires-- in the top sections only (never bass or agraffe treble) on his other piano, which is a Steinway D. This fellow (who is around 60 but lean and muscular) claims that he never experienced such a problem with other pianos, and that it was "never a problem" at Juilliard, where he studied piano performance. I'm just looking for some confirmation that I'm right about this. Might anyone out there be willing to comment? Anyone out there have any corroboration? Anyone out there work at Juilliard and replace lots of busted wires in practice rooms under cover of night?? _____ I have another little question: Do piano pedagogues ever teach anything about being aware when you use the shift pedal, that if any dampers are being held aloft (by the keys) when one shifts, this could put an unwelcome strain on the underlever pinning? I know: key end felts should be very firm and dense (hence smooth, undented) and the underlevers should slide sideways on them without much lateral stress. I'm just asking. In all my years in the trade I don't recall anyone ever discussing this. Joseph Giandalone, RPT Conway, MA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101109/e49a3290/attachment.htm>
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