String breakage (& yamaha butts)

[Lance Lafargue]

Hi,
There was an article years ago in the Journal to make a jig for this.  It
involved using a board with small brads or finishing nails driven into it at
proper locations to both hold the flanges and run the cord to proper length.

I find cutting to length easy.  Once you get one, just duplicate with lines
drawn on a cutting board.  The dowel with 88 wraps sounds great.  You could
use any piece of wood, doesn't have to be round.  Sand/cut it till proper
length is achieved.  I have been recently replacing with new parts, but now
with so many Grey Markets out there, our inability to get parts from Yamaha
America for them, and the need for additional traveling, etc, I'm rethinking
this. I don't mind the design, it's only the brown cord that seems to
dry-rot.  I found another U-1 yesterday with it.  I remember Yamaha blamed
it on our coastal climate when those were still under warranty.  ; )

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
Otto Keyes
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 6:14 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: String breakage (& yamaha butts)


Just before Christmas I got a call from a lady who wanted her piano tuned up
before the kids got home for the holidays.  She said she thought it had a
broken string or two.  She didn't play it herself, but had a son coming home
who was quite good.  I pressed her a bit, & she thought there might be more
than two, with broken strings in the piano bench, so I said I would check it
out.  It was a Conn, or console of similar ilk, with the sharp kink over the
V-bar.  Indeed, there were a couple of broken bass strings in the
bench.....and 9-10 more laying in bottom of the piano.  At least
half-a-dozen bass strings had already been tied, & there were another half
dozen, or more, plain wires missing in the treble.  Looked like the
soundboard had attempted a breakout.

These days I figure there's only so much fun an old man can stand, so I
gently informed the customer that the money they would pay me would best be
applied to a new piano, and took my leave with a large sigh of relief.

By the way, does anybody have a dandy way to put new cord on Yamaha butt
flanges?  I've got some U-1s starting to break cords, so got some sets of
flanges & cord, figuring on replacing a set or two, & then putting the new
cord on the flanges, replacing some more, etc.  Unless I find a better way
to put the stuff on, I'm better off buying the sets of flanges, even though
they've about doubled in price.  Any ideas?

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lance Lafargue" <lancelafargue@bellsouth.net>
To: "'College and University Technicians'" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 5:57 AM
Subject: RE: String breakage


> This P-202 was within the last 5 years.  It may be called a P-22 now
(45").
> They were really banging on it.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
> Susan Kline
> Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 8:33 PM
> To: College and University Technicians
> Subject: RE: String breakage
>
>
> Yes, those early P202's did have troubles in the bass. Remember, it
> was just after they took over the Everett factory. After breaking
> two bass strings while tuning three very lightly used P202's at a
> school, I looked, and saw that the string approached the coil at a
> bad angle, so that it was trying to ride up where the coil first
> started, especially for the lowest row of pins.
>
> This was before they sent out rescaled strings, but they certainly
> got my attention by sending me a complete set of bass strings, gratis.
> Superb
> service -- if only the design had been as good as the service reps!
>
> It all seemed so needless -- if they could just have drilled the
> tuning pin holes so the pins leaned back at an angle, I doubt that
> they would have broken any wire to speak of.
>
> Susan
>
> At 11:07 AM 2/25/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >Lance wrote:
> > >Susan, my biggest string breaker was Macedonia Baptist Church with a
> Yamaha
> > >P-202 also.  Yamaha/dealer paid me to replace the bass strings with
> rescaled
> > >strings with heavier core wire.  They haven't broken any since.
> >
> >Susan, Lance,
> >My biggest string breaker was also a Yamaha P202.  Similar Baptist Church
> >setting.
> >
> >Yamaha told me to use the different scale bass strings as well, and sent
> >them to me.  Apparently, they keep records of frequency of string
breakage
> >for each string for each model.  The service rep could tell me which bass
> >strings had the highest occurrence of breakage.
> >Jeff
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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>
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