[CAUT] Steinway B breaking strings

[Jeff Tanner]

Ok, so I'm bringing this back up again.

Our heavy handed pianist's 10-year-old B has experienced over an  
octave of broken strings in the 6th and into the 7th octaves.  All of  
the wire from C#6 to C#7 has been replaced at least once.  None of  
our other ten Bs, all purchased the same year, have had even one  
broken string, and yes, all but one are in piano faculty studios.   
The other 8 Bs we have from the late 60s to mid 70s all still have  
mostly original wire in that area.  There were no broken strings on  
this piano until about a year or a little more after this professor's  
arrival.  In fact, I've probably replaced as many or more strings on  
her piano alone than on the other 51 grands over the last two years.   
Now that we are beginning to replace these same strings a SECOND  
time, she wants me to find a way to blame the piano.

Apparently one of her students from Utah told her that a technician  
out there blamed broken strings on a sharp capo.  This one feels no  
sharper than any of the others we have, but I don't know how I'd go  
about measuring that spec to know if that's really the problem.  Her  
claim is that since the string is breaking at the capo....

(yeah, I know, but anything to keep from blaming the player)

Hammer grooves are no better or worse than any other piano.  I even  
filed them one time to see if that would help and it has not.

We are going to swap the pianos in her studio to see how the up until  
now less played piano behaves.

But in the meantime, do you suggest I let down the tension and  
"shoeshine" the capo to see if that helps?  Any other suggestions?

I realize piano technicians know nothing of piano technique, and all  
the foremost authorities of string breakage are PERFORMING ARTISTS  
and not technicians, physicists or engineers.  But at what point can  
we say that fortissimo is pushing the machine past its design  
limitations?

Thanks.  I'm off to change two more strings in her studio.  And no,  
this piano is never in tune anymore.

Jeff



Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina