<font color='navy' size='2' face='Comic Sans MS, sans-serif'>Jurgen<br> <font size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">  All true and a good prescription needed to prevent the same recurrence.<br>  Yes and how to deal with the heavy handed player?<br>  A church I service has a Baldwin C we rebuilt many decades ago.  They had a guy who could pretty much break strings at will. I said next time give him the bill.  They did. He refused to pay. so... In fact he was banned. He had broken several string. It was getting annoying and expensive.<br>  Many moons later I changed out the hammers and the bass strings again.  Much better  hammers of some sort and GC bass strings. No more broken strings.<br> <br> </font></font><font size="2" color="navy" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif"> <br> <div style="clear:both"><font size="1" color="royalblue"><b><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, Serif"><font color="black"><font color="mediumblue" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Dale Erwin R.P.T.<br> <font color="green">Erwin's Piano Restoration Inc.</font><br> </font></font></font></b></font><font color="darkgreen"><span style="font-style: italic;"><b><font size="1"><font size="1" color="black"><font color="blueviolet"><font color="black"> <font color="black" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Mason & Hamlin</font><font face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">/Steinway/</font><font color="black" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">U.S. pianos</font><font face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif"><br> </font></font></font></font><font size="1" color="cornflowerblue" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">www.Erwinspiano.com</font><font size="1"><br> </font><font size="1" color="crimson" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Phone: 209-577-8397</font><br> <font color="darkgreen"></font></font></b></span></font><tt><tt><font color="darkgreen"><br>  </font><br>   <font size="2"></font></tt></tt><br> <br> </div> <br> <br> <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br> From: Jurgen Goering <pianoforte@pianofortesupply.com><br> To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org><br> Sent: Fri, Jun 22, 2012 6:20 pm<br> Subject: [pianotech] broken strings<br> <br> <div id="AOLMsgPart_1_2925344c-7a8d-4a4c-8f43-6fb152faaf33"> I will go out on a limb, make some assumptions and  draw some conclusions based on those.  Please tell me if I am way off base. <div><br> </div> <div>I think the operative word that many responders may have overlooked is "music director".  I take it this piano is in a church.  I further assume it is used in "contemporary" church music, i.e. it is competing with  a heavenly rock and roll band.  Amateur drum players are seemingly incapable of nuanced or soft playing, so the bass player turns his amp up, and the guitar player then cranks it up to 11.   If this is the case, the pianist is surely pounding the keys (usually with the pedal to the metal) which causes string material fatigue and breakage at the terminations. <div><br> </div> <div>Regulation, hammer filing and softening, and new strings and hammers might help to a certain degree, but they do not address the actual problem.</div> <div><br> </div> <div>The problem is the pounding of the player.  Solution:  the piano needs to be miked and the player needs his own piano monitor directly beside him, cranked up loudly,  so that he can hear himself play.  The he (she) will not feel moved to pound as much.<br> <div><br> </div> <div><br> <div> <div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">Jurgen Goering<br> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pianofortesupply.com">www.pianofortesupply.com</a><br> <br> <br> </span></div> <div> <div>On <i>Thu Jun 21 21:45:43</i>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; white-space: pre; ">Greg Hollister</span> wrote:</div> <blockquote type="cite"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br> </font> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; white-space: pre; ">I am servicing a Young Chang grand with a history of string breakage in the top 3 octaves of the piano. The hammers have never been shaped and are quite flat . I'm going to restore the hammer shape but  I'm not sure that's the whole story.  Obviously the pianist has been getting carried away with his right hand, but are the strings themselves ever to blame? I've told the music director that shaping and voicing the hammers may not be a cure all for the breakage but that it will be worth doing in any case.  I guess I just looking for some feedback as to whether I'm taking this in the right direction.  I appreciate any help.</span></div> </blockquote> <div><br> </div> <ul><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></ul></div> <div><br> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </div> </font></font>