restringing capo section of Steinway D

[McNeilTom@aol.com]

Hi, Gordon -

My experience indicates that it is a common need to restring the trebles of
performance pianos, perhaps after five or seven years, depending on the
amount of use, etc.  It's time for it whenever string breakage becomes too
frequent for the technician's convenience, or (preferably just before)
breakage during use is encountered.  [I consider it the technician's job to
find, i.e. break, and replace weak strings before the performance.]

Do not mess with the tension in the sections you will not be restringing.
 The other sections will go horribly out of tune during the restringing
process; but once the new strings are up to tension, the rest of the piano
will be found to be nearly as well in tune as when you began.  I have never
encountered any problem from removing all the strings from the top two
sections.  You could considerably reduce any imagined hazzard by doing only
one section at a time.  Undoubtedly, Ed Foote's advice to remove only one
wire size at a time would reduce the imagined hazzards even further, but at a
corresponding price in terms of working efficiency.

Even though the restringing can be done in a day or two - depending on how
many strings will be replaced, new tuning pins or not, efficiency of working
conditions, experience of the technician - try not to embark on this with a
performance piano unless you can find a two-week hole in its performance
schedule.  I like to have at least a half-dozen tunings, spaced a day apart,
before the first performance.  A few hours per day of hard rehearsal helps
settle things, too.  (It is good to have a sypathetic artist or student who
won't panic over the initial instability of the new strings.  It was always
easy for me to find a student who was preparing for a recital and appreciated
the extra concert hall time I could reserve for him/her "to assist me".)

As to dressing the capo bar, I find that any serious reshaping is a mighty
chore while the plate is in the piano.  Perhaps there are others who have
different experience on this.  I do like to polish the bar with 240 wet/dry
sandpaper and a few drops of motor oil; wipe off the excess oil.  It will
tune like a dream, may improve the tone a little.

  -     Tom McNeil, RPT     -
Vermont Piano Restorations