[CAUT] Bass Strings

[Porritt, David]

Tony:

Breaking at the agraffe is not necessarily from a hard blow, but it's
the cumulative effect of hard playing.  Over the years the string has
bent at that one spot a few million times and the long term effect is a
weakening of that spot.  I've seen them break from the mildest playing.
It's the "straw that broke the camel..." thing.

dp


David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Graves, Tony J.
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:31 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: [CAUT] Bass Strings

List,
    In my 10 years of being a tech.  I've always had the understanding
that
bass strings that break at the agraffe while playing is from playing
really
hard.  Is that not always the case?
Reason being our Theatre dept. is renting a  Yamaha C2 for a show from a
dealer and a bass string broke during rehearsal.  The piano isn't that
old
I'd say 5-10 years old.  They claim that "We've been very careful since
it's
a rental and haven't been playing it hard and been using the soft pedal
a
lot because of the room."
So am I missing something???



-- 
Tony Graves RPT
Piano Technician
School of Music
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
(765) 285-0053