[pianotech] Geo Broadbent Tuning Pins

[David Doremus]

I have a collection of oblong tuning pin heads, some work for some pins 
and not on others. Schaff has an oblong head that might work, Jahn in 
Germany does as well. I don't know if Fletcher & Newman or Hecksher 
still do, I wrote to them a while back looking for a square t-hammer for 
harpsichord pins and they no longer had the same one I wanted to 
replace. If you get stuck try <www.fortepiano.com>http://fortepiano.com/ 
they can make custom tips to your sample. Those pins are pretty common 
in Broadwoods and I've never had a problem finding a tip that would 
work, can't remember which one though, sorry. They were not made for 
415, in fact, if I remember right per Hipkins, Broadwoods were tuned 
sharp, 448 -450.

---Dave
    New Orleans



On 9/22/11 3:02 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
> I encountered a Geo Broadbent straight-strung grand piano with tuning 
> pins as shown. Piano is over 100 years old. Although the pin shown is 
> a bit chewed up from some previous tech (not this one) using vise 
> grips, it it pretty close to the other undamaged ones still in the 
> piano. No tuning lever tip I have seen will fit this, as the pin is 
> rectangular in shape, .2”x.26” roughly. The pins are threaded into the 
> block with a pretty coarse thread.
> Does anyone know where to find a hammer tip that would fit this type 
> pin? The piano was moved here from South Africa, where apparently the 
> techs had no trouble tuning it :}
> Also the piano is sitting at about 100c flat to A440, but I was 
> assuming it was designed to be tuned at A415 anyway. Any thoughts on 
> this also? Thanks
> Dave Smith
> SW FL

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