<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Well, the proof is in the pudding. I had a set of bass strings to put on a U-1, so I thought I'd try out the split dummy pin. Bottom line: not for me. I guess in part my imagination was expanding the amount of time it takes to pry a becket and pull off a coil. In fact, it takes maybe all of one second, and a little more for the very lowest bass strings. (On a grand, the lowest pins take a good bit longer because of the agraffes and the lack of space to work. For an upright, very little extra time). Add the time to pick up the needle nose pliers, and maybe it's two seconds a string. Not a lot of time to be saved there. <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But the act of prying actually speeds up getting the coil placed on the fixed pin (the one in the pinblock), because it deforms the coil just enough to get the becket bend over the pin. A nice, neat coil, slipped off the bottom of a split dummy pin, is a bit of a problem to get on the new pin. At least, I found it so. So any time gained in one operation is more than lost in another. And I found it troublesome to make a nice neat coil with the split pin, since the becket isn't held as firmly and solidly in the dummy pin (slot versus hole).</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Part of this is habit: I have done so many strings the same way, the motions are smooth and automatice, and learning new ones can slow things down. But I really see no potential for saving time and effort in the long run by changing. So I guess my split dummy pin will mostly collect dust in the bottom of my stringing box. Others may find it useful.<br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Regards,</div><div>Fred Sturm</div><div>University of New Mexico</div><div><a href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On Jul 28, 2008, at 7:54 AM, Fred Sturm wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div>Hmm, I can do that, but I'm not sure I want to do it 225+ times during a whole restring, or even a partial restring. So I decided to make a bigger one: cut .5" off the bottom of a pin, and sawed all the way up to the becket. It's soft metal, so that's not so hard to do, maybe a minute with a sharp hacksaw and vigorous technique (start with a triangular file making a score for the blade to follow). I sawed the kerf at a slight angle clockwise to the becket hole, so I hit it with the edge of the kerf around the middle of the hole. This leaves a little "slot" that holds the wire in place a little more positively. And then you make a slight turn and it slips down the slot.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>The hacksaw kerf wasn't wide enough for larger sizes of music wire so I had to expand it. I used those metal sanding files Pianotek carries, starting with the flexible and moving on the the stiff one. That expanded the slot enough to allow a wire to slide freely (a bit of work). And then ground the corners smooth so it will turn freely between finger and thumb. Now that I think of it, I remember a local colleague showing something very similar many years back, and me thinking "that's a heck of a lot of work just to be able to slip a coil, when I can pry it in very little time." But restringing a whole piano, that little bit of time saved per coil will add up.<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Regards,</div><div>Fred Sturm</div><div>University of New Mexico</div><div><a href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</a></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>