[CAUT] Harpsichord strings breaking

[Fred Sturm]

On 9/21/07 3:25 PM, "ITUNEPIANO at aol.com" <ITUNEPIANO at aol.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Fred.  This harpsichord has press in pins with no becket hole.
> Initially, it was 3 notes flat, the pins were loose, and the coils were too
> low to press the pins in further to tighten them.  I loosened the pins,
> carefully raised the coils so I could press the pins in further but I'm
> getting breakage at A-440.  I suppose disturbing the coils might be the
> culprit, although I was very careful.  I've had several new strings break at
> A-440, but I might have had the string tail under the coils.  I'll need to
> check that. I'll also check the measurements.  The strings I've replaced are
> the correct size per Zuckerman's scale.
>  
> Bob Maret, RPT
> Piano Technician

    Were your replacement (and/or original) strings low tensile or modern
piano-wire style? 
    I mentioned the possibility of turning it into transposing. That is a
pretty big task, but a more doable one is simply to remove the top key
treble end, cut 1/2² off the keyframe that end, slide it over and fix it in
place (making sure the backs of keys line up under jacks), and make a larger
cheek block for the bass. You¹ve lost a note, but it plays 440. This is more
or less assuming it is designed for 415, which seems quite possible. My
memory is a bit vague, but it seems to me that that was an advertised
feature of authenticity at a certain point (along with the becket-less pins,
the screw-less jacks, and the registers you change by reaching around the
side of the instrument).
    Those supposedly tapered tuning pins are a real pain. They aren¹t
actually tapered except for a short segment at the very bottom, so they
don¹t really get much tighter with pounding in a bit, as a truly tapered pin
in a taper drilled hole would. I bought a similar kit Z instrument (from
someone who never quite completed it) to use as a rental, and got frustrated
pretty quickly with those pins. I drilled out the holes in the block and
replaced with zither pins. End of chronic slipping pins problem. Also,
beckets actually do come in handy <G>.
Fred
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