Another guess at the cause: perhaps the restring was done by creating coils on a dummy tuning pin, then transferring to the pin already in the piano. This can certainly be done successfully (I do it all the time), but someone not too experienced might unbend the becket bend to some extent, either while removing the coil or while replacing it. That will certainly cause a break at the becket if the "unbend" is extreme enough. For the most part, there is little stress at the becket due to high friction between the tuning pin and the coils. And those of us who back off some string from the neighboring tuning pin to do a quick broken string repair know that a becket can hold with as little as one coil around the tuning pin. Even with hundred year old wire much of the time. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico Rolf von Walthausen & Nancy Larson wrote: > > List: > I've been been servicing a Steinway D in a teaching studio that has had > a string breakage problem at the tuning pin becket since it was restrung > 4-5 years ago. There is no apparent rust or corrosion visible. The > stings usually break during tuning -- only sometimes during playing -- > but never at the usual breakage points. <snip>
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