<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>----- Original Message ----- <DIV>From: "Lance Lafargue" <<A href="mailto:lancelafargue@bellsouth.net"><FONT color=#000000>lancelafargue@bellsouth.net</FONT></A>></DIV> <DIV>To: "Caut (E-mail)" <<A href="mailto:caut@ptg.org"><FONT color=#000000>caut@ptg.org</FONT></A>></DIV> <DIV>Sent: February 20, 2003 6:24 AM</DIV> <DIV>Subject: String breakage</DIV></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>> Hi,<BR>> I'd like some feedback on everyone's experience = with piano wire life/string<BR>> breakage and the need to restring pianos.  = I have a University with several<BR>> Steinway and a few Baldwin D's and B's = and they are breaking strings in the<BR>> treble.  I actually = occasionally break them myself when tuning and broke one<BR>> once when I was = string voicing/leveling.  They break at the V-bar. Many of<BR>> these = pianos are only 7-15 years old.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Try to not think of this phenomena in terms of years, but in terms = of hammer blows. And not just in terms of the number of hammer blows, but = the <EM>quality</EM> of the hammer blows. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Under <EM>normal</EM> playing conditions (whatever those are) a = typical treble string will survive something on the order of 500,000 to = 1,000,000 hammer blows without undo stress. But there are some assumptions = attached. It assumes hammers of reasonable resilience--an increasingly rare = characteristic these days. It assumes the hammers are not excessively massive--another increasingly rare condition in the <EM>modern</EM> piano. It assumes the = hammer has a reasonably round, not flattened, shape. It assumes the capo tastro = bar is reasonable well shaped. And it assumes the physical characteristics of = the wire falls within the <EM>average</EM> strength characteristics intended by = the string manufacturer. Some brands of piano wire stand up better than = others, but the differences are relatively minor. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We are currently using Mapes International Gold wire. It has = demonstrated somewhat better tensile strength and working life characteristics than = any of the others currently available and its surface characteristic has a = higher polish than most others--it's cleaner. Even within one brand of wire, = however, specifications such as tensile strength are always averages, not = absolutes. Some batches of wire will run high, some low. A batch of Mapes IG wire = running low will break at lower tension than a batch of some other wire running = high. If a batch of wire runs low, all of the pianos strung with that batch will be = prone to string breakage some early. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>(The acoustical qualities of all brands of piano wire are = essentially the same--claims of audible tonal characteristics between brands of wire are = highly suspect and unproven. Even my own.)</DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>Assuming each note is played 100 times a day--I've not studies this = but I shouldn't this this an abnormal number for a practice room piano--that = gives you about 5,000 to 10,000 days of use. Assuming 250 days of use per year = that adds up to 20 to 40 years of life for a typical string on a typical piano. If = the pianos are used daily this comes down to 13.7 to 27.4 years of = life.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>Now, maybe the hammer moldings were running a bit on the heavy = side. Or perhaps someone put a set of (any brand--Japanese or German) = hard-pressed hammers on the piano. Or, maybe we let the capo tastro get a bit grooved = and rattley. Or we put a little lacquer on the hammers to brighten up that <EM>killer-octave</EM> everyone has been complaining about. Has the = piano been suffering under the pounding of some up-and-coming technical master who = has not been taught the subtleties of musicianship? (The size of the pianist = does not seem to be much of a factor here--some of the worst string-breakers in = my experience have been physically quite small. One of them a very slender = young women who couldn't have been 5' 1" or 5' 2". It's a matter of technique = and having not been taught the joys of dynamics and subtlety. Did their = pianos through the formative years lacked the same?) </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>As all may be, bottom line is that the string life you are = experiencing may be quite normal given the design, the hammers, the overall = condition of the pianos and the pianists in question. Others have indicated what can = be done to prolong the string life of the piano. To which I can only add: = keep the hammers well shaped, keep them light and keep them resilient. And resist = the demands to make the pianos <EM>bright</EM> and <EM>powerful</EM>. And = try to impress on the pounders--be they students or professors--that the beauty = of the pianoforte lies in its subtlety not its absolute power output.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>Del</DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><FONT face="Lucida = Sans" color=#000000>Delwin D Fandrich<BR>Piano Designer & = Builder<BR>Hoquiam, Washington  USA<BR>E.mail:</FONT>  <A href="mailto:pianobuilders@olynet.com">pianobuilders@olynet.com</A><BR>= <FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000000>Web Site:  </FONT><A href="http://www.pianobuilders.com">www.pianobuilders.com</A></FONT></D= IV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>