String breakage, drifting sharp

[Lance Lafargue]

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Thanks for all of the input on string breakage.  Fred, I am thinking about
recent Yamaha P-202's and Steinway uprights where my unisons were ruined in
the treble from going sharp.  I do have a hard test blow.  I always assumed,
and was told, it was flagpoling and capo bearing, etc.   I'll be looking at
that, especially on these pianos.  Thanks to all.

Lance Lafargue, RPT
Mandeville, LA
New Orleans Chapter, PTG
lancelafargue@bellsouth.net
985.72P.IANO

  -----Original Message-----
  From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Fred
S. Sturm
  Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 3:27 PM
  To: College and University Technicians
  Subject: Re: String breakage, drifting sharp


      When I first got the "sharp test blow" religion, maybe 15 years ago, I
tried it out on a concert grand. Boy, was I impressed by how far those high
treble notes were falling. I was sure that I had always left the piano _way_
unstable. Got done with the tuning and checked it out, and was shocked to
find that the top two octaves had drifted considerably sharp, and the
unisons I had sweated so much over were gone, too.
      More recently, since using an ETD, I have often noted, mostly in the
top half octave, that notes will be consistently a couple cents sharp. A few
not so terribly hard blows and they come right down to pitch. Then, the day
after or a week after or whenever I next see the piano, I find the same
phenomenon.
      Stability is a very amorphous thing. Of course, it depends a lot on
how much friction there is in the capo (or often between string and felt in
the agraffe section). I don't think it's possible to leave a piano in such a
stable tuning condition that "savagely hard" playing won't have an effect.
Not that I don't keep trying.
  Regards,
  Fred Sturm
  University of New Mexico
  Mark Cramer wrote:
  >snip<

    BTW, after the tendonitis, I used a striker for a while, still with a
good blow. Though easier on the body parts, but found the capo sections
would tend to drift sharp, and this is a discussion in itself.>snip<Mark
Cramer,Brandon University

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