<div>A friend of mine showed this to me about 15 years ago, Paul Wuske was a member of the guild, an RPT who resigned last year. He was/is an excellent technician, rebuilder and teacher. He had seen some film of one of the asian factories, in it they were using brass drifts or punches to seat the strings. He adopted this practice for his newly rebuilt/restrung pianos and eventually for new piano prep and old pianos when being pitch raised after a several year hiatus between tunings. He explained that when the pitch rises and falls, which it will in an uncared for piano, the strings will "hang" on the bridge pins as the soundboard shrinks back after swelling up over the summer with the high humidity. If you tune the piano to pitch, quickly, just a rough tune. Then using a piece of brass, I took a 1/4" diameter piece about 3" long, I bored a 1/4" hole about 3/4" deep into a 3/4" diameter dowel about 6" long put a few drops of gel type CA in the hole and placed the brass in the hole. Using this tool, I use a 2 lb. hammer and place it either side of the bridge on the string and strike gently(wearing safety glasses). On old uprights that haven't been tuned for a few years you can actually see the strings move down the bridge pin! When you are finished you'll find the piano will be back to 1/2 tone flat(about where you started) or more but when you begin to tune again you'll find it to be a lot more stable. It's still going to stretch out of tune somewhat but not nearly as badly as you're accustomed to. This also works for grands that have been moved any distance, new grands & new pianos in general, restrung pianos in addition to those neglected pianos I mentioned above. The point of the length of the brass is so that it will reach the unwound wire through the overstring, the small size of brass allows this also and to get up close to the plate. By using brass there is no damage to the string, I have not had any strings break doing this but err on the side of cation by wearing the safety glasses. I do every string in the piano, bass strings too.
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<div>Another plus to this, some of that "bad wire" and false beats will disappear on the better pianos.</div>
<div>I also do this to each new string I install, it helps them hold tune faster and I already have the hammer there anyway for the coil setting. Another area that's greatly overlooked! </div>
<div><br>-- <br>Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience. <br>- Denis Waitley<br><br><br>Michael Magness<br>Magness Piano Service<br>608-786-4404<br>
<a href="http://www.IFixPianos.com">www.IFixPianos.com</a><br>email <a href="mailto:mike@ifixpianos.com">mike@ifixpianos.com</a> </div>