<!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><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've seen them many times over the years.  Never did a scientific study but I always wondered if certain batched of piano wire ended up being more brittle than others.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I did an overhaul on a Lowery/.Story & Clark console (from the 70's) about 3 years ago.  Ended up replacing strings all over that piano.  I'm sure the wire was bad.  The piano was still too new to have so many broken strings.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ron</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE 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=pianoforte@pianofortesupply.com href="mailto:pianoforte@pianofortesupply.com">Jurgen Goering</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, December 08, 2007 9:17 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Becket</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>On Dec 6, 2007, Alan Barnard wrote:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><?fontfamily><?param Courier><?x-tad-smaller>This is a very common event. <BR><?/x-tad-smaller><?/fontfamily></BLOCKQUOTE>Very common event? As in weekly or monthly? Then why has almost no one experienced it? After 26 years in the biz, I had my first one last month. I posted about my broken becket to the CAUT list, and received only shoulder-shrugging responses.<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><?fontfamily><?param Courier><?x-tad-smaller>The metal, presumably, is somewhat stressed and weakened making that 90 degree bend. <BR><?/x-tad-smaller><?/fontfamily></BLOCKQUOTE>Really? Look at this - the break is clearly not situated in the bend.<BR> <P> <HR> <P></P> <P> <CENTER><IMG src="CID:{AD92D634-63D1-4A8F-B0A1-5E5532C9512B}/becket-2.a.jpg"></CENTER> <P> <HR> <P></P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><?fontfamily><?param Courier><?x-tad-smaller>You mentioned that it was a single bass string and that is also a common area of the piano for breakage of this type. If you loosen one of these strings, it is helpful to keep the coil under some tension (pull on it) as you raise it back up to pitch so that the pulling force is applied to turns around the pin and not just to the wire at the becket bend. <BR><?/x-tad-smaller><?/fontfamily></BLOCKQUOTE>By the way, my broken becket was on a 1-1/2 year old Yamaha P22, up in the treble above the dampers.<BR><BR><BR><?smaller>Jurgen Goering<BR>Piano Forte Supply<BR>(250) 754-2440<BR>info@pianofortesupply.com<BR>http://www.pianofortesupply.com<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><?/smaller></BODY></HTML>