Dueling Pianos

Ted Simmons ted@palmnet.net
Mon Feb 23 19:16 MST 1998


Many innovations come from the CAUT technicians because they are faced with
different situations than we who do mostly tuning and repairs on home
pianos.  Therefore, I have a question.  But first let me explain my
situation.
The cruise ship that I have been tuning for for about 4 or 5 years has
decided to change their entertainment to a "Dueling Pianos" format.  To
prepare for this my supervisor and I changed the bass strings on both
pianos to low tension strings and replaced the hammers with totally
untreated ones. The purpose of this was to eliminate or at least lessen
string breakage.  Well, after the first week of dueling there were 5 broken
strings between the two pianos.  My next visit is scheduled 2 weeks from
now.  I shudder to think what I might find.

My question is this:  Does anyone have a magic formula for preventing bass
string breakage under heavy use?  I would be grateful for any suggestions.

Ted Simmons
Merritt Island, FL




This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC