String breakage

[Wolfley, Eric (WOLFLEEL)]

Lance,

Its funny, but I was just thinking of some of these same things. Last night
while tuning, I broke the first string (C#6) in our newest Steinway D
(delivered Dec. '99) and was a bit surprised at how early it occurred. It
has been my experience that once one breaks you can expect others to follow
on a regular basis. On other performance pianos I service on a regular
basis, 5-10 years seems to be the period where strings start breaking. This
piano is in our recital hall and is probably played 8-10 hours a day between
rehearsals and performances. We restring the top 2 capo sections on pianos
when we get tired of tying off strings or when the piano gets a little
Summer vacation, i.e.- when we can. I cut the old wire out, back the pins
out a few turns, and restring by forming coils on a pin, slipping it off and
onto the pin in the piano. This doesn't take as long as you might think and
also gives you the wonderful opportunity to deal with any cap, loose
bridge-pin, or notching problems. It also doesn't seem to take long for the
tuning to stabilize after this operation - probably because there isn't as
much wire to stretch and the thinner wire conforms more quickly.

To answer your questions, yes, yes, depends, depends - my restringing often
has more to do with the condition of the bridge, terminations and friction
problems rather than breakage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric Wolfley
Head Piano Technician
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Lance Lafargue [mailto:lancelafargue@bellsouth.net] 
Sent:	Thursday, February 20, 2003 9:24 AM
To:	Caut (E-mail)
Subject:	String breakage

Hi,
I'd like some feedback on everyone's experience with piano wire life/string
breakage and the need to restring pianos.  I have a University with several
Steinway and a few Baldwin D's and B's and they are breaking strings in the
treble.  I actually occasionally break them myself when tuning and broke one
once when I was string voicing/leveling.  They break at the V-bar. Many of
these pianos are only 7-15 years old.  I used to think it was from worn
hammers hitting the wire too close to the bar, but even after filing, they
are breaking.  Breakage is over more than one wire gauge.  These pianos get
heavy but probably not unusual University use.  Thanks in advance.
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

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