[pianotech] Re-pinning

[paul bruesch]

I have a customer with a quite new (3-4 years old) Schimmel K120, a nice
~47" Studio. Nice, except that virtually all the tuning pins are barely
tight enough to hold pitch, which of course makes it unpleasant to tune.

I am in contact with Schimmel about this. They want to send me a set of
oversize pins. I suppose anything would be an improvement, but I have a few
apprehensions/questions/concerns...

(1) I've never re-strung, nor re-pinned, an entire piano. I have replaced
single pins here and there, and a dozen or two on an instrument (an S&S "B"
that should have been getting rebuilt instead). On the dozen-or-two piano, I
had a heck of a time tuning up to pitch when I replaced both pins of one
wire. Should I replace one at a time? i.e. pull one pin, (ream/chase... see
#2,) replace with new, pull up to pitch, pull other pin, lather rinse
repeat? Seems like an incredible amount of tool-changing.

(2) There's been much discussion on this list about reaming (chasing) for
new pins on a restringing job, and about PDF/resin for driving the new pins.
Any opinions as far as either of these topics for repinning a nearly-new
piano?

(3) For removing the old pins, would backing them out with a power drill
generate too much heat? The alternative, manually backing out 200+ pins,
seems like an incredible time suck.

(4) How much time should I plan on, particularly given this is my first
experience??

(5) Would the results be significantly better than CA'ing the block, and
worth the effort? I do think that CA'ing a nearly new block sounds like a
sacrilege!

I do have a tilter which I would think I definitely want to use.

Thanks much,
Paul Bruesch
Stillwater, MN
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