breaky Yamaha strings

[David Skolnik]

Hi Ben-
Now for some information you can really use.  Steer clear of any religious 
invocations when posting to this list, as in :

>We worked out a way to string now and pay later, and he kept the 
>instrument and won the competition, but Jesus!

  You will then live a long and happy life.  { :+)

Next, a question(s): Did the entire Concert Department sign off on that 
quote, or was it a couple of guys having a drink, or two?

Hope to run into you again soon.

David Skolnik



At 10:01 AM 05/17/2001 -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.