Tuning problems under capo bar

[Ron Overs]

>. . .  Indeed, your  parent's piano requires a restring and the
>  > bars need to be reshaped and hardened. Its just a waste
>>  of time trying to tune an instrument with this problem,
>>  since it'll be 'screaming' before the ink is dry on the
>>  cheque.
>
>Well, the instrument has been tuned regularly since my
>parents bought it, it always sounded very pleasent after
>tuning, at least to the non-piano technician. And it stayed
>in tune very well.

As they will for the first few years until the bar gets grooved 
enough to really hang on to the wire, making rendering difficult.

>The tuner who they hired tuned it in
>about two hours, so it didn't take him too much time and he
>obviously had the problem under control.

Sure, but there comes a time, as Neil Young once said.

>
>Why do you suggest restringing? Wouldn't reshaping (and
>possibly hardening) the capo be enough or is it because the
>strings have been damaged by the grooves in the bar?

Exactly, while the wire will probably not be deformed diameter-wise, 
since all the damage will be in the capo, the kinked wire will hardly 
yield the best results. Piano wire fatigues with age and tunings, so 
when considering the labor cost involved in removing and replacing 
the wire it would be false economy to use the old tired wire.

Ron O.
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