Unique Tuning Pin Coils

[Bill Ballard]

At 5:44 PM -0400 9/28/01, Farrell wrote:
>Anyway, this post is about tuning coils. I noticed two newer strings on the
>piano in the treble (no, I did not put them on - they would be at least 3
>years old). On both strings, the coil on the rear-most pin is wound in the
>traditional manner, with the coil extending downward from the becket.
>But on the forward pins, both strings were wound upward from the becket
>- yes, that's right, the coils that were, the coils, thecoils are 
>above the becket -
>the only reason I noticed it was because the tuning wrench did not fit on
>the pin very far. Now the coils on the downward coils were very sloppy and
>were spread out from the becket to the plate. But the upward wound coils
>were kind of OK, not real sloppy - quite a bit better than the others. I
>guess maybe the dude figured it was easier to make a neat coil if you wind
>it above the becket?????? Go figure!

I've got on of those up here, a Rathausen "runt" grand at the 
community art center. It really only works if you have a thick block. 
The point usually is to have more distance between the coil (now at 
the tang instead of at the bottom of the coil) and the plate, with 
which to get more tuning pin into the block. In this case it was done 
in desperation by a previous tuner, so as to avoid to sharp a bend 
off an excessively sharp and tall front bearing nut in the plate. 
(Hitchpins, not aggraphes.)

The reason he took special care with the coils being wound upwards 
was that these coils if not compressed (or squashed) would prevent 
the tuning hammer from seating at all properly. It's no easy trick. 
Lifting coils actually releases spring energy, while squashing them, 
when they've been wound upwards, stores energy in them.

It seems to be working in your situation, but more often it fails to 
help in the situation of poor pinblock grip. It's kind of like 
improving on grand damping by taping weights to the damper heads.

>That's all the fun for now! No to go with my son for his first time playing
>the clarinet in a high school marching band!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, when the saints..........

Mr. Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"May you work on interesting pianos."
     ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb
+++++++++++++++++++++