>On Tue, 5 Sep 1995, Israel Stein wrote: > >> >> Greetings, >> >> If some of you are so inclined, I wish to solicit opinions as to how I >> should proceed with the following piano. >> >> It is a Steinway M, 10 years old, and is in constant use by a very busy >> up-and-coming concert pianist and teacher (she had to buy another piano so >> that her family could play too). Over the past half-year or so strings in >> the top 2 octaves have been breaking on a regular basis. (SNIP) >> >> Any good advice on what else I should check and how I should proceed here? >> >> Thank you in advance >> >> >> Israel Stein > >Here at SMU we have a number of pianists much as you describe. The wear >on these Steinways is tremendous. I have found that restring the top two >sections is very beneficial every few years. String breakage is a real >problem here. Many times I can never get new strings to settle down and >stabilize before several more strings are broken. Most of these Steinways >are 12 years old. On the pianos I have replaced the strings on the capo >sections they have gone as much as 3 years without further breakage. It >HAS to be string fatigue. > >While I have the strings off I always dress the capo bar and even clean >the sounding board as far as I can. It is a very rewarding job. My best >guess is that this breakage you are fighting now is due to string fatigue, >and has nothing to do with whatever problems the piano had when new. > >Dave Porritt >SMU - Dallas We have essentially the same problem with many of our practice room Steinways here at UT. A lot of the Steinways which were bought in 1981 have experienced the frequent treble string breakage which Israel describes. We have restrung the treble (capo) sections in numerous pianos over the years and still have string breakage problems after a few years of heavy playing. I tend to agree with Dave Porritt about string fatigue. I think it's just the nature of performance pianos for this to happen. The good thing about it is that restringing the capo section almost always improves the piano. Good luck, Israel. Tom Seay t.seay@mail.utexas.edu The University of Texas at Austin
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