breaky Yamaha strings

[jolly roger]

Hi Ben,
             This is not so unusual. A heavy use performance piano will
often need the top two sections restrung at about the 5-10 yr mark.   You
have a choice, keep changing strings with all the tuning, and mis match
voicing problems.  Or restring the top two sections.  Remember to polish
the grooves out of the capo bar.
We have done this on a large number of the university pianos.  And it is
not specific to brand or model. Two of the Bossendorfers are the worst
offenders in this department.  be thankful you don't have to make all those
string loops.
Just explain the facts of life to the customer, and recommend restringing
the top two sections.  Observation: Most of the breaks happen at the Capo.
Regards Roger




At 10:01 AM 5/17/01 -0400, you wrote:
>What¹s with Yamaha strings?  This week I replaced four adjacent #14 wires on
>a 10-year-old Yamaha 6' grand (Model S400E #4881266). 
>     The customer (a young concert pianist with long, thin, unmuscular arms)
>has had dozens of broken strings.
>     I called Yamaha in Los Angeles to ask if this problem is familiar to
>them.  The technician there claimed that 1) the problem is common in all
>makes, not just Yamaha; 2) such problems occur only in Gospel churches; 3)
>if a concert pianist is breaking strings she has bad training;  4) it must
>be a case of hard hammers. 
>     In 30 years of tuning I've never experienced this kind of trouble with
>string breakage other than in Yamaha grands.   One customer, admittedly a
>strong young pianist, broke almost all his high tenor and treble strings and
>was going to throw the piano away (sell it wholesale to a dealer).  He is
>Christopher Basso, the recent winner of the Van Cliburn Amateur Competition.
> He worked at Starbucks for a living, and didnít have a way to pay for new
>strings.   We worked out a way to string now and pay later, and he kept the
>instrument and won the competition, but Jesus!
>     The S400E has the following stringing scale in the breaky sections,
>about the same as on a Steinway:
>#13  6
>#13.5  4
>#14 4
>#14.5 5
>#15 6
>#15.5 6
>#16 5
>     Could there be something else about the scale that raises the tension
>(maybe those strings are longer than on other grands)?   My only other
>guesses would be 1) since all the broken strings were in the Capo D'Astro
>section, the pressure bar somehow cuts the strings; or 2) there's something
>breaky about Yamaha wire.  
>     Whatever the explanation, I wish Yamaha would come out and admit that
>there's something about those otherwise excellent instruments that breaks
>strings in the treble.   Yamaha artists are often the struggling variety,
>and Yamaha Corporation should find a solution and fix the instruments free
>of charge.  
>
>*** *** ***
>"Mr. Benjamin Treuhaft is a first class tuner-technician.  His tuning meets
>with all our standards.  His action and tone regulation are of equal merit."
>- Steinway & Sons Concert Dept.
>