Hi Lance, We have that situation a lot at UT, and I have found that, in the Steinways at least, the string breakage is greatest in the 14 and 14-1/2 wire sizes. My gut feeling has always been that the tension is greatest there, and so these strings break first, like the miner's canary, when things are beginning to deteriorate. So, when strings start to break in the treble regularly, I file hammers first. If the strings keep breaking, it's time to restring the capo. I do believe they weaken at the v-bar with repeated playing. After all, the hammers hitting against the string over and over again act to anneal the string. Be sure to reshape capo bars, and use some graphite or something to help with rendering. And we usually restring the capo once with the original pins. If we decide to restring the whole piano (bass strings deteriorating, loose tuning pins, etc.), we do restring the entire piano with the next size tuning pins in the original block (with mixed success). All this is done on an as needed basis, we don't really have a formula for when particular jobs must be done. It really depends on how much playing a certain piano gets. Beyond the first complete restringing, I hope to be retired before we get to that point! Regards, Mary >Questions: >-Does the wire get weakened at the V-bar over time? >-Is it expedited when the hammers aren't filed regularly? >-How often should a University teaching piano need restringing? >-Should they be always completely restrung or just areas where they are >breaking? Same pins in a partly restrung area? > >Lance Lafargue, RPT >Mandeville, LA >New Orleans Chapter, PTG >lancelafargue@bellsouth.net >985.72P.IANO > >_______________________________________________ >caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >
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