String rollers

[John Delacour]

At 20:45 04/10/01 +0000, Graeme Harvey wrote:


>He was saying that in his time (UK trained some years back now)

It would need to have been at least 90 years ago to have any positive value!

>...it was usual to really lay into the new wire with a string roller to 
>remove as much stretch as possible.

Lots of things are usual in England, though perhaps there is less 
action-oiling done here than America to judge from some threads on this list!

I never use a string stretcher, not least because you have no way of 
knowing what tension you are applying.  I have always found simply pulling 
up a certain amount over pitch, almost always using the action (no chipping 
up), and reducing this amount as the piano dictates at each pull-up, 
results in a very stable situation.  Factory methods are for factories, 
where use is made of cheap semi-skilled workers and where the production 
sequence may dictate certain methods.  A proper piano technician who 
understands the piano as a whole need not follow procedures that are 
convenient in a production line.

Ron's point about bridge damage is also a good one.

JD