<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No I don't think you need such an angle on the hitch pins, but I cannot imagine what problems that would cause.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Where do the strings break?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Seems to me that very first thing to do in a situation like this is to have the string scale evaluated by an qualified scaler and find out if the problem is in the scale. If the strings are too close to the breaking strength, then you know what needs to be done - rescale and restring.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PS - Is that picture distorted or is that really a 3-foot-long "grand" piano!?</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>1890 Schiedmeyer 5' baby grand , recently restrung by a reputable company.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>The owner calls me in because the previous tuner gave up trying to tune it; the new bass strings kept breaking and even his replacements broke.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>And while we're about it here is a picture of the hitch pins. Is it really necessary to have them at such an acute angle?</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>AF</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>