Leveling Coils & Pinching Becket

Farrell mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
Tue, 4 Nov 2003 12:21:24 -0500


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Hello Gordon. Just a couple weeks ago I leveled coils on a piano the was =
likely restrung a good 50 years ago - an 1880s Knabe square grand. First =
of all, the Mother of All Coil Lifter from Joe Goss - picture below. I =
guess I should have put something next to it for scale, but it is twice =
the size of the junkers from Schaff and it has a hardened tip. No coil =
will be unlevel as long as I have this tool!



Below is a picture of the horrible coils I was facing. I was afraid to =
even try and tune it because so many of the strings were already getting =
mashed down into the plate. The root of the problem on this piano was =
that the holes for the tuning pins were drill about 20 degrees off of =
vertical - the coils will naturally go down unless someone is determined =
to force them up - at least temporarily.



Actually, I did not use Joe's tool on this piano - I use his too for =
perfecting the coils. On this horror project I used the little pry-bar =
type coil lifter available from the supply houses. I just let tension =
down on the strings enough so that the coil would lift via the pry tool. =
Then I tightened the strings back up and tuned. Oh, and I also pounded =
the pins in more as they were too high to start with and many of the =
pins were too loose to hold pitch. I also CAed the pins (you can likely =
see some of my CA mess on the plate and pins - hey, at least the darn =
thing is toonable now!).



Regarding the becket - just take a pair of pliers when you let the =
tension down and squeeze them puppies.=20

What else can I tell ya? Hope this helps.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----=20
From: "Gordon Holley" <gholley@hi-techhousing.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 11:05 AM
Subject: Leveling Coils & Pinching Becket


> List.  I tuned a Kranish & Bach 5' Grand, 1918, last Saturday and was=20
> amazed at a terrible job of restringing another local technician (not=20
> a PTG member) did some 20 years back.  The owners had no idea what=20
> they were looking at but here's what I saw.
>=20
> 1. The pins were too high above the plate.
> 2. The coils were not leveled AT ALL.
> 3. The becket was not pinched in to the pin leaving a very visable=20
>       open loop before coming back to the pin on the first coil.
> 4. The strings were not spaced properly at all.=20
>=20
> I have read through my filed conversations between Roger Jolly, Ed=20
> Foote, Joe Garrett, Jim Bryant, Isaac Oleg, Ron Nossaman, Richard=20
> Brekne and Alan Barnard, on the subject of "String Settling" back on=20
> July 12 & 13, 2003.
>=20
> Joe Jarrett said that Jim Bryant gave him a coil setting tool, which=20
> I would assume would be used when restringing.  Is a picture of this=20
> tool available?
>=20
> Main question:  I've not tried to level coils 20 years after the=20
> piano was restrung.  How is it done?.  I do have the typical string=20
> leveling tool.  This I didn't find in the discussions between these=20
> sage individuals.
>=20
> Regards,=20
> Gordon Holley
> Associate Member, Indiana Chapter 467
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> 
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