[CAUT] Mason & Hamlin agraffes

[Alan McCoy]

Hi Don,

Are these pinned agraffes? If so, you might consider keeping them. If you do
keep them, remove the worst of the offenders and ream it with a radiused
reamer that you can find at MSC for cheap (link that Ron sent). Then
restring it and see if that works. As for removing the agraffes, they might
be looser than you would think. The reamers that Chris R was using were not
radiused, but the technique used would be the same. I'll see if I can find
the article. It's from his Eclectic series of the early 90s.

Alan


> From: Donald McKechnie <dmckech at ithaca.edu>
> Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
> Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:41:54 -0500
> To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Subject: [CAUT] Mason & Hamlin agraffes
> 
> Happy New Year List!
> 
> A relatively new private customer of mine has a M&H A from the 1920's
> and it exhibits some unpleasant buzzing sounds in the tenor section.
> Some notes are worse than others. I have tried several times to
> lessen the problem but it is never to the complete satisfaction of
> the owner. (BTW, I'm the second technician she has employed to deal
> with this piano. The first gladly turned this over to me :-) Things I
> have tried included various hammer voicing techniques that deal with
> buzzing strings (I would like to see this particular set of hammers
> replaced but I do not think they are the problem), manipulating the
> strings in the front and back of the agraffe and installing string
> couplers on the strings at the front side of the agraffe. The only
> thing that has lessened the buzzing is the couplers but the problem
> tends to come back some time after installation. I've tried adding
> more couples and placing them in different positions but this is
> never enough for the customer at some point after my visit.
> 
>  From my experience with Steinways that have similar problems, this
> buzzing will be solved with replacing the agraffes. Yes, I understand
> one can recondition agraffes to be like new in some cases but I
> mostly prefer to replace with new. I believe the agraffes on this M&H
> need to be replaced to solve this problem. I have a S&S B in the shop
> now that exhibits pretty much the same problem. Michelle and I
> replaced one of the worst agraffes and restrung with new wire.
> Problem solved. I plan to show this piano to my customer.
> 
> I have never replaced agraffes on a M&H. So, any help from
> experienced M&H folks is greatly appreciated. I have heard from some
> local technicians that this can be very problematic. Is it true that
> these agraffes may have odd sized threaded stems and are not
> available? Will I experience any problems trying to unscrew them?
> Given that they do not look too bad, can I expect these to
> recondition like new? I have some reamers that Chris Robinson was
> recommending some years back. These look like good tools to do the
> reconditioning job. Any other reamers you recommend? I have not
> looked for the Journal that dealt with all things agraffe but plan to
> do so tomorrow. Anyone know off hand what month and year that was?
> 
> Thanks much for any comments and suggestions.
> 
> Don
> 
> 
> 
> Don McKechnie
> Piano Technician
> Ithaca College
> dmckech at ithaca.edu
> 607.274.3908
> 
> 
> 
> 
>