[pianotech] Weird....strings

[J. W. Stein]

Hi Folks,

I have been tuning and repairing pianos for over 30 years and today I 
came across a situation on a Kimball console that I have been tuning for 
several years without any indication of a problem.

This pertains to the mid range mainly.   After tuning the piano and 
playing it, to make sure I was satisfied I was about to pack up when I 
did a quick scale..just to make sure.
Apparently the Bb below mid C was way out of tune.   I was perplexed as 
I know I tuned the string.  Anyway, I tuned it again and just to be sure 
played the A next to it...the string that shares the Bb ( it loops 
around 2 hitch pins) was out of tune.  I tuned it, and lo and 
behold...the Bb went out of tune. And not flat....it went sharp.   This 
happened whenever I tried tuning the adjacent A string...and it didn't 
matter if I lowered or sharpened the string... the Bb string always went 
sharp.
I retuned the Bb several times and if I didn't touch the A string, then 
it was fine.  And it's not a matter of loose tuning pins either.

I checked underneath and that's when I discovered that several of the 
strings in the mid range are looped around two hitch pins.  It seems to 
me this may have something to do with it...that the string is slipping 
on the hitch pin somehow..?????  Anyone ever deal with anything like 
this?  Any good remedies?

I wonder if the looping around 2 hitchpins is a manufacturer's fault, or 
something has just gone awry.

Baffled,

Jon