<html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; = charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> West Coast, where the summers are = hot and dry and the winters are cold and wet.  Isn’t that = normal?   <div> David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net </div> -----Original = Message----- From: = pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Skolnik Sent: Monday, October 03, = 2005 5:12 AM To: Pianotech<fon= t size=2 face=Tahoma> Subject: Re: some days = you get what you ask for   David Stahl wrote: I was hoping for the best, = but it was the usual 8-10 cent late-summer pitch raise. David...where do you live?  What scenario would require that you = RAISE pitch in the late = summer?  I think it more common to have to lower pitch by that time. David Skolnik At 01:39 AM 10/3/2005 -0400, you wrote: List,   Friday was certainly an interesting day on the job.  First piano = was an old Erhard upright, a nice old box made in 1919, pretty good = shape.  It had a broken high treble string on it, which I'd been aware of, and I = replaced it no problem.   Next piano, Acrosonic, circa 1950s.  Pitch raise, twang, G#2 wound = bicord snapped. A perfect candidate for one of the universal bass strings a lug around.  As usual, spinning off excess copper was the most time = consuming part of this job.  Again, no real problem.   I was thinking about how much I've improved in various repairs, thanks = to many tips gleaned from this list and elsewhere in the PTG.  This type of = repair was once something I dreaded, now it's just something I do in the line = of duty.  "But," I told myself, "don't get cocky.  = How long's it been since you've replaced a long wire in an understrung = section of a piano?"  It had been awhile.   Which brings me to the next piano:  Steinway, a regular client, a = nemesis piano that always finds a way to lengthen the appointment beyond an = acceptable length.  A 1915 or so M re-whatevered badly a couple of decades = ago.  I was hoping for the best, but it was the usual 8-10 cent late-summer = pitch raise.  No problem, at least until I got to A3.  Twang.  = The A#3-A3 wire snapped.  Went to the car, got stringing stuff = including tube to get string onto hitch pin.  In the failing light of the day, I = got the job done, but time would have been saved had I brought in my shop light = so I could see better to route the wire through the bridge pins.   The upside:  3 strings on the day, no bloody finger tips.   The weirdness:  Haven't had a string break in a few months.  = Why did they all gang up on me on one day???   Tip #1:  putting some tension on the wire makes it MUCH easier to = get the string placed properly around the bridge pins in the understrung = areas.    Tip #2:  Lighting is a good thing when doing this sort of job!   Thanks for reading,   Dave Stahl </div> </body> </html>