Breaking strings (new angle?)

[btrout@desupernet.net]

Hi Clyde,

I've wondered similar things.  Perhaps the more radical changes required to
change the pitch of a string significantly are more detrimental to the
integrity of the steel wire than the more frequent minor changes required to
maintain a proper tension.

Good thread.

Brian Trout
Quarryville, Pa.  (We're practically neighbors!)

Clyde Hollinger wrote:

> Friends:
>
> Since most strings break at the tuning pin, could one reason be that it
> has been flexed there too much during tuning?  If so, we will find
> strings breaking faster in a piano where an inexperienced tuner went
> back and forth, back and forth, trying to figure out where to leave the
> tension.
>
> Would it also follow, then, that a piano tuned 2-4 times a year will
> develop a breaking string problem faster than one that is tuned
> infrequently?  (Please!  I am NOT advocating out of tune pianos; my
> question is theoretical.)
>
> I am almost afraid to ask these questions, but they have crossed my mind
> repeatedly, and I would be interested in any response.
>
> Clyde Hollinger, RPT