<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>I suspect she is just beating the snot out of the = piano.  IF... if, if, if- you can get away with it and she doesn't complain, you = might try substantially reducing let-off.  This would take power out of = the hammer blow reducing the likelihood of broken strings.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Rob Goodale, RPT</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Las Vegas, NV</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV>I recently tuned a four-year-old Kawai GE3 and ended up replacing = 13 broken strings<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>(26 = unisons). I found out that the client has broken twenty some strings since she = bought the piano. She is a tiny (100 lbs) third year performance piano University = student that is studying under a Russian instructor. The Russian instructor = possibly explains the banging technique that she has acquired. She told me that = she has broken strings on other pianos.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>