[CAUT] Mysteriously breaking treble strings

[James Ellis]

Jeff, Re your mysterious breaking treble strings in the old upright:

You said you measured the wire, and checked for the obvious things.  I
presume you did confirm that the wire was indeed what the label indicated -
steel piano wire, and not something else?  But did you measure the SPEAKING
LENGTH of the breaking string - strings?  Where did they break - at the
tuning pin, or somewhere else?  What did the angles look like coming out
from under the pressure bar, over the V-bar, and at the coil on the tuning
pin?  There are a very few old pianos still out there with unusually long
speaking lengths in the high treble, in which the wire was right at the
breaking limit, even when the piano was tuned to A=435, as designed.  And
then sometimes a bridge gets moved, for whatever reason.

I'll be interested to learn what you found the cause of the breakage to be.

Jim Ellis