[CAUT] Steinway B breaking strings

[Geoffrey Pollard]

Hello Jeff,

I have had a similar situation here at Sydney Conservatorium, though it was
first a Kawai and then a Yamaha C3. The head of the kbd unit, or her piano,
or her percussive teaching style were the culprits. She eventually agreed to
some remedial voicing. Now, I keep the hammers well shaped and with some
surface softness & this has reduced the problem.

It's vital to have the teacher's support on a radical tonal change - none of
her students liked the change and complained that they could no longer
produce enough dynamic range ( ie, decibels).

To get a quick idea on the radius of the capo, take an impression with
plasticene or blutak. Then find the appropriately sized drill shank that
will just fill the bottom of the groove.

Regards,
Geoff


On 14/2/06 7:20 AM, "Jeff Tanner" <jtanner@mozart.sc.edu> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
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