[CAUT] Yarmulka u1 bass strings constantly breaking

[Ron Nossaman]

> dear Collegiate and Universitarianistic tuners, here at New York 
> University we have about 50 newish u1s, none over 10 yrs old and most 
> younger than 5.  They break bass stgs. Yamaha claims that happens with 
> every other make of upright in a music school setting.  I do not believe 
> them.  Most of our u1s have over 1/2 dozen missing or replaced bass 
> strings (treble never  break). 

Instead of believing anyone, try running a scale analysis for 
yourself. You'll find high bass tensions putting the 
percentage of breaking strength in the high 60%, to the low 
70% by Sanderson's formula. This is obscenely high. I have a 
lot of Yamaha verticals in my clientele, and haven't had bass 
string breakage problems at all, but I suspect it's just 
because they aren't pounded hard and continuously. I'd 
recommend replacing wrapped strings with sets scaled to a 
lower break% rather than replacing the pianos, if they are 
otherwise doing the required job.

I sure wouldn't go to Mapes for the rescaling.

Ron N