Agraffe Pings (was Re: Out of control)

[Mark Cramer]

I picked up a great tip on aggraffes from this lift. A retired colleague
suggested whipping through each hole (prior to restringing) several times
with a length of bicycle brake cable.

I do this as a matter of course now, although it is actually bicycle
'shifter' cable that is the correct size. No more than a couple of passes
though, unless you really like levelling strings.

Mark Cramer,
Brandon University

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-caut@ptg.org [mailto:owner-caut@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Avery
Todd
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 8:21 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: Agraffe Pings (was Re: Out of control)


Jim and list,

Have others experienced this 'ping' problem on newer pianos or rebuilt
ones with new agraffes? I never had until the last 3 yrs. or so. And
it also seems to only be on Steinway agraffes.

Is this an agraffe problem? Is there any way to correct it short of
replacing the agraffes? One of our D's here have a few notes in the
middle and lower middle that are extremely difficult to tune. When they
ping, they always jump too far! The effect is very similar to those
snappy Baldwin tuning pins. Frustrating!!!!!!!

Avery

>BTW, the replacement piano for this performance was a new 'D'.
>It's still relatively "green", and coupled with the humidity swings, I
>have to jockey across agraffe pings *and* ratcheting pins to find the
>sweet spot. No doubt it will experience the same fate... just faster!
>
>Jim Harvey
>
>
>Jim Harvey
>harvey@greenwood.net
>Greenwood (n): the largest city in South Carolina WITHOUT an Interstate