<HTML><HEAD></HEAD> <BODY> Dave: I'm an odd ball and I know it, but I can see no= reason to try to splice it.  A new string -- to me anyhow= -- is a much better option.  If I spend more than 10= minutes on a splice attempt in a home, I tell them we have to= order another.  Here at the school I keep a set of strings= for Ms, Ls, & Bs.  When one breaks, I grab one from the= set and about once a month order replacements to keep the sets= complete.  Most of the bass strings that break here, break at= the agraffe (from "energetic" practicing) so they can't be= spliced anyway unless you don't mind a knot in the speaking= length (I do).  This splicing thread comes up from time to time and= while I did manage to splice one successfully for my RPT test, I= don't think I splice 1 a year at most.  Yes, I keep all the= sizes of treble wire in my car. dave __________________________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275   ----- Original message= ----------------------------------------> From: <<A= href="mailto:Piannaman@aol.com">Piannaman@aol.com</A>> To:= <<A= href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>> Rec= eived: Wed, 26 May 2004 09:03:10 EDT Subject: Tuner's= Knot--NOT! Hi all, My last job of the day yesterday= was a not-so-long-ago refinished, re-strung M and H AA.  It= was sitting in a room that could have doubled as a sauna.=  No window coverings on the huge windows, direct afternoon= sun for hours.  The side of the piano that faced the window= was hot to the touch. I gave the owner a brief lecture= about the importance of getting her piano into a more temperate= climatic situation, then set to work on a 30 cent pitch raise.=  First note, A0:  kinda tight feeling pin, yank, THUD!=  Broken, right at the pin.  Great opportunity to= splice it with the knot I practiced so diligently for so many= hours.   I tried for about twenty minutes to get= the leader(all I had was 21 1/2 string to use, and the core of= the broken string was probably around 24), but I could not get= it into position so that I could interface the two ends= properly.  The thick wire was pretty hard to work with,= because of lack of flexibility, but the main problem was that= there was so little space in that little corner of the piano.= Any ideas for making this repair a little easier?=  I'm certain that it could be done.  I will be= ordering a new string, however, and given that the strings are= relatively new, that will be the best fix.   Why= the original broke is a mystery to me.  It seems likely= that the stringer bent it one too many times while installing= it. Input and advice?   Thanks,= Dave Stahl </BODY></HTML>