restringing capo section of Steinway D

[A440A@aol.com]

Gordon writes;

>I have a college with a S&S D that seems to be breaking strings in the capo
>section on a fairly regular basis.  This instrument gets used a lot, and I'm
>not going to be able to have it out of service for any appreciable length of
>time.

     I had this problem, and I restrung the top two sections of the piano
with the original pins. If you are comfortable decreasing the coil to plate
clearance by 50%  a given pin size  can do double duty.   Using a dummy pin
to make coils on, and backing out the original pins only a half turn  before
putting on the new string, the school should be able to get 5 treble
restringings out of one pinblock,  ( that is "one" career, by my estimation).
The factory stringing often has an large amount of space between the plate
and coil, so, there is room there for a given pin size to do double duty,
i.e.,  it's second life is spent lower in the block.
    I find that restringing one size at a time doesn't require any lowering
of tension.  The V bar is easily restored by some 240 grit wet or dry paper,
"shoe-shined' lightly back and forth over the bar. If the string spacing was
right to begin with, it takes very little metal removal for the strings to
establish their own new seating in what is left of the grooves.

Regards,
Ed Foote
Precision Piano Works
Nashville, Tn.