<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Wim,     What about the fact that as the wire ages you get closer and closer to the elastic limit of the wire. I'd swear that I can sometimes tell when a string will break by the way it sounds. Another reason to me is the fact that the piano becomes harder and harder to tune with age because of string rendering problems. I suppose that these are related in at least a small way. Perhaps we could also ask ourselves why guitarists and other stringed instrument players find the need to replace strings too? Greg Wimblees@aol.com wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>In a message dated 11/7/01 11:43:15 AM Central Standard Time, cramer@BrandonU.CA writes:     <blockquote TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">It was then a simple matter to demonstrate false beats, show a segment of broken string, and point out several splices, to the 'peace of mind' of our Dean (and myself), that re-stringing was overdue. BTW, the false beats were actually caused by loose bridge-pins, barely "finger-tight," from F#4 (gauge change) to C8. Although I believe you can and will discern a difference between new and older string Wim, the greatest benefits seem to come from servicing all bearing and termination points at the time of a re-stringing. best regards, Mark Cramer, Brandon University   <blockquote TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">-----Original Message----- From</blockquote> </blockquote> Mark Thank you for this information. But based on the above, it would seem that the original reason, false beats, wase not the result of poor wire, but loose bridge pins. In other words, if you had tapped down the bridge pins, or at most, removed them, (and only loosened the strings to get at the pins), and epoxied them in place, you would not have had to restring the piano. I agree that servicing all bearing points is easier with the strings removed. But the big question still remains, is there a reason  to restring the whole piano? Unless someone else can come up with another valid reason, I am still not convinced that restringing is something that needs to be done, other than for the obvious reasons, like replacing a pin block, even after 100 years. Wim</blockquote> -- Greg Newell <A HREF="mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net">mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net</A>  </html>