String breakage

[Ed Sutton]

    Paul Revenko-Jones taught a nifty class a few years ago about
termination points.
    One of his ideas was that string breakage is caused by those moments
when both the main string section wave and the front duplex wave are
simultaneously "up," which produces the most extreme bend in the string
across the front termination. Heavy and hard hammers will exacerbate this.
    It is a progressive condition, like bending a coat hanger wire until it
breaks.  If it takes 500 bends at x degrees, it doesn't matter if you do
them all today, or space them out over a year.  If you can reduce the
degrees of bending, you will get a lot more bends before the wire breaks.
We also see 80 year old pianos with all strings intact.
    This would very much support Vince's comments that once it starts, it's
too late to do much about it, and that constant voicing is the way to
prevent or delay it.  And that furious tuning blows add to the problem.
    Paul, why don't you chime in?
        Ed S.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred S. Sturm" <fssturm@unm.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: String breakage


>     Mary, Eric and Vince are right on the money. I'll add a couple
thoughts.
> 1) I think a major factor in string breakage is tuning: frequency and
technique.
> The number of blows we give every single string is quite staggering,
> particularly in the high treble. If, coupled with that, we use brutal test
> blows, breakage will increase correspondingly. Not much we can do about
> frequency of tuning, but we can try to minimize the string trauma caused
by test
> blows through use of tuning pin manipulation to achieve stability. (I'm
not
> saying that sharp blows aren't needed to achieve stability. They are. But
we can
> moderate it, to the benefit of the piano and longevity of our bodies).
> 2) String levelling can definitely contribute to string breakage at the
> capo/agraffe. I'm a great believer in string levelling, but again, we need
to be
> careful and not overpull . It's easy to do: get one string a little too
high,
> and then try to get the others to match. How would I know?
>     All that said, it sure makes a big difference who is playing the
piano. I've
> watched as particular students migrate from one favored practice room to
> another, leaving wreckage behind. And have watched as the arrival of a new
piano
> faculty member has somehow coincided with a remarkable increase in
breakage. Age
> of strings seems to have very little to do with it (within limits). I've
got
> five or six B's from the mid 60's that have never seen a replaced string.
And
> others from the same purchase that have seen multiple restring.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
>
> "Vincent E. Mrykalo" wrote:
>
> > Lance,
> > It really depends on who is regularly playing the piano (if its in a
> > studio).  There is one prof. who after 4 years, needed to have the
> > capo section restrung because of breakage.  OTOH, another's has been
> > doing well for ten years.  So I'd expect that in the concert hall,
> > you would just have to judge that when they start breaking, you
> > should plan to do at least the capo section sometime during the year.
> > Once they start breaking, really no amount of shaping/voicing is
> > going to help much.  So the key is probably keeping them shaped and
> > voiced before strings start to break to get the longest life out of
> > the strings.
> >
> > >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
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
> > --
> > Vince Mrykalo RPT MPT
> > Senior Piano Technician
> > Crane School of Music
> > _______________________________________________
> > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
> _______________________________________________
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