<!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 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Is there a possibility, that the hitch pin got
bent, when you replaced the first broken string?</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I seem to recollect, that when I was starting out,
I replaced a string, and it was not bottomed on the hitch pin, and the hitch pin
bent.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I think, I just carefully, bent it back to agree
with the position of all the other hitch pins.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>The broken string, is probably more to do with
roughness on the capo bar, and the string not rendering
properly.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>John M. Ross<BR>Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada<BR><A
href="mailto:jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca">jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca</A></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"><B>From:</B>
<A title=tvaktvak@sbcglobal.net href="mailto:tvaktvak@sbcglobal.net">Tom
Sivak</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, October 22, 2006 10:21
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> hitch pin glitch</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>List</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I was tuning a 4 year old S&S Model S yesterday. The piano was
slightly low in pitch, but not significantly, having been tuned only 6 months
ago. By me. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>The string at C8 broke at the capo bar. I was shocked. I
mean, this is a practically new piano and it wasn't very flat. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> I went to the car and got my string kit and replaced the string,
spanning the B7/C8 unison. I started pulling the string up to
pitch, going back and forth between B and C, and finally got B7 in tune and
went to C8, pulling it up. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I found B7 had slipped, alot, and pulled it back up, and found C8 had
slipped, alot, and pulled it up and back and forth and back and forth.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Something was wrong. I continued to try to get the new string up to
pitch.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Finally, the new string broke at the same place, right under the capo
bar. It was then that I noticed the plate hitch pin. It was bent
at a forward angle, leaning towards the keys, unlike all the other hitch pins
(with a few notable exceptions, actually), which were all leaning back away
from the keys at about the 2 o'clock angle. This hitch pin was at an 11
o'clock angle. I decided not to try to install another string with the
hitch pin looking like this.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I called the local Steinway dealer to initiate a warranty repair on
this. (I've never replaced a hitch pin, wouldn't know where to
start)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>My question is this: both strings broke. It seems that the faulty
hitch pin must have had some play in this, but I can't see how, really.
How could the hitch pin's angle cause the strings to break?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If I assume the hitch pin was in its proper position when I started to
tune the unisons (which I don't know, since I didn't look at it until after
the second string broke) and then bent forward as additional tension was added
by me pulling them up to pitch, I can understand why the strings kept falling
flat, since the length of the string, from tuning pin to hitch pin was getting
smaller. But why didn't the string hold when pulled up to its proper
tension? The string didn't slip off the hitch pin, it broke at the capo
when it almost got up to pitch. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Could it be that the string started to move slightly upward on the hitch
pin, by virtue of the hitch pin's angle allowing it to do so? If that
were true, then the string wouldn't render properly at the bridge, because of
the upward pressure against the angle of the bridge pin? I'm really
trying to imagine how the hitch pin might have had a play in this.<BR><BR>I
guess it's possible that the strings breaking were unrelated to the hitch pin
situation, but then why would the new string break? Seems that it
had to have something to do with it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Any ideas?<BR><BR>I don't think I will be involved in the replacement of
this hitch pin, but I am curious as to how it is done, and if it can be done
in the customer's home. After finding the problem on B7/C8, I looked at
all the other hitch pins and found two others that are standing more
vertically than all their compatriots, as if they were on their way to moving
completely forward like the problem hitch pin did. I could see the metal
on the plate looked 'bunched up' on the front side as if the forward movement
of the hitch pin caused the plate metal to deform, slightly, upward, on each
of the hitch pins that were not at the same angle as the others.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Any comments?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks,</DIV>
<DIV>Tom Sivak</DIV>
<DIV>Chicago</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>