Maybe you've never had a string break. And if you have how do *you* know why it breaks? Yes, pianos do get chipped well above 440 but that's not the point. In those cases the string segments are rendering very well and the tension is distributed through the entire string pretty instantly. If you take that 3 inch segment between the pin and the first friction point and bind the string at that point so that it can't move, it takes very little increase or movement with the tuning lever in a section that is already on the high side of break point percentage (as the high treble tends to be) to change to push that small segment past the break point. It's the same reason that Yamaha bass strings where the hitch at the tuning pin side forms a very sharp angle toward the tuning pin tend to break so easily. The string is already near the break point and the friction at that hitch binds the string so with relatively little movement of the pin that first segment is pushed beyond its break point. I would contend that poor rendering is a major contributor to string breakage. If you are overshooting the target or let's say tune in a way that pulls that segment above its final resting tension then you increase the odds in high friction situations that you will exceed the break point of that first section. Seems obvious to me. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of John Formsma Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 5:29 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable Maybe theoretically .... but I haven't observed this in my 15 or so years of tuning. It takes a lot higher to break a string, unless it's just ready to break. (For various reasons: weakened at the capo area, or becket, etc.) When a piano is restrung, doesn't it get chipped to well above A440? I remember someone from Kawai (I think D. Mannino) saying their pianos are tuned to either A443 or A444 before they are shipped to the USA. Anyways, I don't yet see how a little overshoot contributes to string breakage. Yeah, I see the theoretical possibility of it since the pitch is slightly higher, but don't observe it in real life. -- JF -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110202/d10d3d73/attachment.htm>
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