Breaking Strings

[Erwinspiano@aol.com]

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First off Mike  let me welcome you to piano  tooners anonymous where we've 
all made every mistakes known to the world of  toonerism & congratulate you for 
your courage to reach out for help.  We Love you Mike  & We all need help.
    Moving along. My Dad was a Yamaha dealer  for 20 years & this problem 
became apparent over time Sometimes occuringing  in the warrantie period.
  The Problems is 3 fold 
  Hard hammers not routinely voice & cared for ,  forceful yet routine 
playing in this condition & also the angle around  the termination pin at the top  & 
the string segment running up to the  tuning pin. It's tooo blamed sharp & 
lends itself to string fatigue under  the condition you describe. Even with out 
much playing strings will & do  break, either while tuning ,playing or in the 
middle of the night.
   Tell management to get over it & bite the  proverbial bullet. It's cheaper 
in the long run than to continuely struggle with  a condition that is 
terminal . Have them call Yamaha to verify it if you  can't get thru to them. If they 
dont' see the light I would fire them till they  see daylight.
  I mean how much nickel & dime repair will they  tolerate.
  I once restrung a Kawai grand in a Church that  had  broken literally 75% 
of the plain strings  & repaired  badly by Bozo the amateur.  Hammers of stone 
& un cared for. The  sound of the piano that they were still trying to use 
could not produce an  intelligleble melodic sound ,with all the different rates 
of string stretch  going on. Oh .. My....   Gosh.  & that the intelligency of  
said church didn't think to call somone for many years tolerating the  
condition.
  The course of remedy currently being pursued  will portray you in a bad 
light ,as the piano will now always be out  of tune (every day) & sooner or later 
you will become the resaon that  it is.
  Hope this helps. Keep the Faith were here to help my  brother
  Dale Erwin
 
 

Long  time listener, first time caller. First order of business: Thanks for 
the  
forum... just reading for the past several months, I've gained valuable  
knowledge. Keep it up, all!

Moving on...

I've got a customer  (a theater) whose has their Yamaha P22 tuned weekly for 
a 
long running  show. Over the last 9 months or so, bass strings have been 
breaking with  increasing frequency; it's to the point now that I've replaced 
5 
bass  strings in as many weeks. As many as 15 or 20 have broken so far. 

It  seems to me that the cause is hard hammers. The piano has always been  
bright, but is a little more so than it used to be (this is a little hard  to 
gauge, since I see the change slowly over the course of a few years).  There 
are 
definitely deep grooves... I convinced the management to let me  reshape the 
hammers once - the string breakage slowed for a while, and  then increased 
again. The piano is played pretty hard, seven or eight  shows a week. 

Am I on the right track, or are there other causes for  this type of problem? 
Besides needing regulation, the piano is in good  shape (no environmental or 
humidity issues, etc.). 

I'm guessing  that I need to convince the managemnet to A) let me do more 
work 
on the  hammers, B) let me replace the hammers w/ new ones, or C) continue to 
pay  for string replacements and muck up my schedule on a weekly basis (and 
it's  
two strings every time they break one - I put on a universal, then follow  up 
with a duplicate when it comes in... thought about tying knots, but the  
strings 
are breaking right at the end of the winding, mostly - knot much  room).

Thanks in advance for thoughts, pointers,  sympathy(?)....

Mike Byrley
Chicago, IL


 

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