A local theater booked an act from New York. The pianist advised that we should expect broken strings. He said he broke many strings wherever he played. The theater had 2 Yamaha U-1's. He broke 8 bass strings in 3 days on the pit piano, in spite of having his own speaker monitor. The piano never broke a string before that time nor after. > Tom Gorley > Registered Piano Technician > On Sep 20, 2011, at 10:47 PM, Joseph Garrett wrote: > Wim said: "When a string breaks at the pin or hitch pin, it's usually a > weak string. When it breaks at the agraff, it's usually hard playing. Do > you remember where this string was broken? As Jerry mentioned, the guy > might be practicing a particular piece of music where that note is hit > repeatedly. One suggestion is to check the voicing on that particular note. > It might be a little softer that the others around it, and the pianist is > hitting that note a little harder to create a louder sound, this putting > more strain on the string. " > > Wim, > You are partially correct. When a string breaks at the agraffe or Capo, > etc. it can be many things. The last thing I would fault is the playing, > even tho I have known "musicians"(?) that could break strings at will. > These knot heads usually did it to get the "Night Club Owner" to fix/tune > the darned piano!<G> Or....simply because someone really pissed them off. > The first things to look at are structural. If all appears to be o.k., then > I'd check scale and hammers. Next regulation and then the possible "ham > handed" player. I once had a 85 lb. female entertainer type that completely > destroyed a Yamaha P22. Two reasons she did it: 1. she hated the gig and > the piano! 2. because she could! The lady had "chops"!!! One of the main > reasons these types of pianos self-destruct, is poor design, IMO. There > seems to be the brunt of piano design, nowadays, is to make them more > powerful. They try to do this by increasing the mass of the Sound board. > Then, to get that moving they increase the mass of the bridges and greatly > increase the tension! THEN, to add insult to injury, they put rock hard > hammers on the damned piano to get it to overcome all the built in problems > they put into the design! Stupid in my not so humble opinion. Then, they > say it's a "paino". Bullpuckey! It's a PSO and nothling more. Any aural > similarity to a real piano is purely coincidental! Lastly, we are asked to > make it "sound" correct! Yeah, like that's going to happen! 1st most people > of today don't have a clue of what a real piano is supposed to sound like. > Why? Because the music they listen to is so distorted by the recording > industry and the piano manufacturers. Even the top end pianos sound like > crap, most of the time. They need someone, ( a miracle man, so to speak), > like Andre to even make it slightly palatable. Tis' the "sound" of the > times. Sigh!! > That's the way I see it. (Definately why no one has ever asked me to design > a piano.<G>) > Regards, > Joe > > > Joe Garrett, R.P.T. > Captain of the Tool Police > Squares R I > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20110921/4d3cc098/attachment.htm>
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