Piano Firing Missiles at Church Congregation

[jolly roger]

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Hi Bill,
           The problem is probably the player riding the damper pedal, which
you have little chance of correcting.  Suggesting that it's her playing will
only inflame her.
Get Al Sanderson, Danny at GC Strings to rescale to cope with the problem.
restring the bass.
YC Strings are nothing to write home about, so it would significantly improve
the piano.
When you restring carefull inspect both the state of the bridge pins and the
notching.
Roger


At 12:12 PM 1/27/01 -0500, you wrote: 
>
> List, 
>
> Yes, it's true and I need some opinions on what to do about it.  It is a 
> Young Chang Grand model G-185, only a few years old.  It is meticulously 
> cared for but early in it's service, the pianist at this, shall we say, 
> "spirit filled" church complained of bass strings breaking and shooting out 
> of the piano. 
>
> I have tried all of the usual.  I filed the hammers.  A monitor feeds back 
> sound to the pianist.  When I explained to the church directors that it is 
> the "vigorous" style of playing that sometimes causes strings to break, the 
> pianist resigned.  Things were OK for a while but now there is a young lady 
> who is firing scuds at the congregation faster than I can get there to 
> collect them, get them duplicated and replace them. 
>
> She is quite upset and beside herself.  She refuses to believe that it is
the
>
> *way* the piano is played that is causing this.  She claims that she has 
> played the piano "all her life" and has never seen or even heard of this 
> happening.  The piano has a string cover which she yanks out and throws in 
> the corner.  She also says she has never played a piano with a "blanket" in 
> it and just "couldn't" play with it in there.  I have firmly insisted
that at
>
> this point, it is a matter of public safety and won't have any effect on
the 
> sound. 
>
> I am thinking that these wound strings must have particularly high
tension.  
>
> Does anyone know if this is so?  Over the years I have heard of other such 
> instances that were cured by replacing the wound strings with a set of 
> lighter gauged, "happy" strings.  It would seem to me that a lower tension 
> would solve the problem but in reading the recent post about "replacement 
> strings", I am confused.  Some of these strings have been breaking at the 
> bass bridge termination point rather than the agraffe.  That seems very 
> unusual to me. 
>
> Should the manufacturer supply a new set of wound strings and if so, should 
> they be a set designed for lower tension?  I presume that heavier gauged, 
> higher tension strings provide a bigger, bolder sound.  What effect would 
> lower tension have?  Just as a theoretical question, would tuning the 
> instrument to a lower pitch, say 100 cents lower prevent this from
happening 
> (with the same gauge but a *new* set of strings)?  (I do not view this as
an 
> option, just a possibility that might work in some other circumstance).  (I 
> also would not even consider altering the regulation to deliberately
produce 
> less power). 
>
> It is also interesting to note that to date, only wound strings have
broken, 
> no plain wire. 
>
> Bill Bremmer RPT 
> Madison, Wisconsin 




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