<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Friends, I have been servicing a Young Chang grand in a pentecostal church for the past four years.  The pastor told me it gets played really hard.  There is ample evidence of many torn strings in the past, but there have been relatively few since I began servicing the piano.  So while I would like to take credit for doing something right that made the change (I wouldn't know what), it lurks in the back of my mind that there may have been a change of pianists.  I never asked though. Clyde Brian Holden wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE> I have been reading the comments regarding breaking strings and Gospel pianists.  I cannot hold off my 2c worth any longer.  I have been servicing a Yamaha P2 at a school for about 15 years.  Up until about 5 years ago there was no problem, then almost overnight the bass strings started popping .  I initially replaced them with hexicores, but eventually succumbed to putting on a brand new replacement set direct from the Yamaha suppliers.  To my horror within a week one of those broke.  We narrowed it down to a church group that had recently started hiring the hall, around the time that the problem initially started.  Even then, I thought it was just a coincidence.  The church group moved on and the problem stopped.  They started meeting at another school and yes you've guessed it - strings started breaking on that piano too! I found out that it was the same pianist in both cases and when I discreetly asked someone how loud he played, the answer was "hard - very hard".  It transpired that he played a lot of chords and used excessive use of the accelerator (sustain pedal).  Thank God he's now moved away.  Another two pianos I do at other churches of similar type also suffer regularly breaking strings.  Yes, I am convinced to the point of knowing, that the consequences of hard playing result in broken strings and that the problem is prevalent in Gospel type churches.  My suggestion on more than one occasion to the Pastor is to have the plate passed around twice - once for the church and one for the piano repairs.  Brian Holden I could go on about the treble strings that I regularly have to replace on a new Yamaha U1 for a brilliant but heavy handed child prodigy, but I think of gone well over time already.</blockquote> </body> </html>