Good point, Ed. All of which I do, but neglected to mention. You must monitor the pitch during the process so that you won't be addressing a slackened wire. If a piano is slightly sharp, it is an opportune time to attend to the hitch pin loops and bridge pin terminations. Then pitch-raise and tend to the front terminations. Regards, Jon Page At 08:43 AM 12/18/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Jon writes: > >As detailed in the Renner USA pamphlet on voicing by Rick Baldassin. This > > removal of the natural curve > >in the wire starts at the rear duplex, then the bridge pins, then the front > > termination at the capo bar. > > If I might add some to this; I think the removal of the natural curves >should include the the two sides at the hitch pin. Strings which were >installed a year before, and had all the above curves settled in, will still >measurably drop when the wire is given a squeeze on either side of the hitch >pin! So, does it not stand to reason that the rear-most bend should be >eliminated also? If you have previously straightened the wire curves on the >distal side of the bridge pins, the slight movement of this rear-most >straightening will then allow the bends to move toward the speaking length >and center themselves on the bridge pins. After which, a very light tap >will further straighten out the wire behind and in front of the bridge. > In following this idea out, the tighter coiling on bass string hitch > pin >loops also has a lot of slack in it. On bass strings that have been >installed long enough to be "stable", it is still common to cause a 5-10 cent >drop simply by grabbing the tight part of the hitch pin loop with a pair of >Vice-grips set to pretty snug, and gently rocking it from side to side. > On restringing jobs, I like to chip twice to about 8 cents sharp before >doing ANY of this straightening. If time allows, a few days of settling >between the chippings is good. Whereas a new piano seems to take a year or >two to settle down, that is the soundboard and case relaxing. When I replace >a broken string in an old piano, it can be stable in a week, so I don't think >the stability problems are in the wire, itself. > For stability, the tuning pin coil must be tightened, as it will have >some slack in it,no matter what. This can be minimized by tight coils, then >tightening the becket, and then leveling them. Even after this, it will be >found that grabbing the coil with pliars and twisting it in the direction of >its turn will cause a significant drop in pitch as it winds more tightly on >the pin. > It is also wasted effort to attempt to level the strings on a piano that >hasn't had the strings settled, since it takes very little movement under the >agraffe to go back out of level. >Ed Foote RPT >www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/ >www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html > >_______________________________________________ >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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