With the resent discussion on coils/pins, I am a bit confused by what some of you are saying. 1) Should the wire stick out of the becket at all or be flush with the pin? I notice daily that many quality pianos have the strings coming out of the beckets and this was done in the factory. If this practice is wrong and the string should be flush in the tuning pin, then why do so many piano companies do this? I use the Sciortino Insta Coiler which also causes the string to extend out of the tuning pin hole ( unless I am using it incorrectly). Is there another tool for making coils some of you find superior to the Sciortino tool? 2) I was taught to make sure all the pins are at the same height by using a cardboard jig or taping a hammer shank on the tuning pin punch and pound the pin in until the hammer shank hits the plate. I would set the hammer shank so the first pin has about 3/16" from the bottom of the coil to the plate. I believe this is the method Art Reblitz recommends. Is there a better way to do this? 3) If the bottom of the coil to the plate is more important then the height, then how do you set this with each pin? Is there another type of jig available? It looks kind of odd to see tuning pins at different heights for the sake of preserving the coil to plate height. Reblitz says it should be about 3/l6" when the strings are up the pitch. Do most of you agree on this 3/l6" figure? 4) Someone suggested using only two coils on the single bass pins instead of three. Is this a technique most technicians agree upon? Thanks for your comments Jim Turner
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