Why not replace all the agraffes, at least in the bass. I wonder if the 1/8" extra string height would be a problem? David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 Original message From: pnotnr at aol.com To: pianotech at ptg.org Received: 3/23/2009 5:18:07 PM Subject: [pianotech] agraffe questions List, I picked up a Chickering Quarter Grand for free recently, and since it is my own piano, I can be a bit adventurous with it. It has wound trichords in the bass, which I would like to replace with bichords, and possibly add some wound strings on the lowest two treble notes. (This piano has individually tied strings in the lowest treble section, so I wouldn't have to add any hitchpins) I have replaced pinblocks and strung two other Quarter Grands before but I didn't change the string configuration. This time I will need to replace 8 trichord agraffes with bichord agraffes. . The original agraffes appear to be 7/32" thread. The 7/32" agraffes that I got from the supply house leave the string holes too high relative to the other agraffes, so I tried grinding the base of the agraffe with the counterbore tool that Pianotek sells. That left me with about a 1/8" long section of the treaded portion with no threads, and when I tried screwing it into the plate, it barely got finger tight, then just spun. My questions are: Did Chickering use a size thread between 7/32" and 1/4"? (I could tap the hole for 1/4" if I had to) What does one do when replacement agraffes leave the string holes at a different level then the originals? Even if I replace all of the agraffes, won't they be creating a different string plain, which in turn changes my string bearing and hammer bore? That seems to me to be more of a problem with the treble bridge, which I was not planning on recapping. I welcome any suggestions from anyone, unlike me, who knows about this stuff. Thanks in advance for any input. Gordon Large, RPT Hallowell, Maine (just trying to learn something with this project) Job Hunting? Start with the companies that posted job openings this week. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090323/06adebb0/attachment.html>
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