Hi all, Since there is/was a recent/current thread on stringing, I thought this would be appropriate. Sometimes, we need a little refresher on the basics. Mine just came in the form of failing to remember just how much wire you need to crank around a tuning pin to pull the low tenor in a big grand up to pitch. I hadn't strung a 9' piano for a long time, but that's no excuse. I should have known better. The upshot was, I ended up with close to a dozen coils too close to the plate. I couldn't swing a hammer, even my four pounderpounder hard enough in the space underneath to drive them back up so I needed something else. I made a 'punch' for a small machinist screw jack that would fit into TP holes in the bottom of the block, spaced the jack up underneath with scrap, and cranked the punch up onto the bottom of the first pin. I couldn't move it with constant pressure, but whacking the bottom of the keybed (with jack pressure under the pin) moved it up. Trouble is, I didn't want to beat the bejeebers out of the underside of the keybed to fix my first stupid mistake with a second one, so I tried another approach. First, I jacked the punch up under the pin, and cranked it up enough to supply a little pressure. Then I turned the pin backward about twenty degrees, and then back where it was. With the pin moving in the block, the jack pressure, and keybed spring, pushed it right up to where I wanted it. Very slick, very easy, no hammer tracks. Incidentally, it's AMAZING how much crap leaps up out of the gap joints of a keybed when you whack the underside. This was after the air hose and vacuum. One more thing, just for the record. I have decided to cease the practice of reaming plates and inserting plate bushings. I still think they are a good idea, and I still think they add to the general tunability of the instrument and I still see nothing wrong with the practice... but. Since I can get maybe eighty five percent of the same benefit just reaming the plate big enough to get adequate clearance of the pin, and getting the pin centered in the plate hole, and the looks of the resulting job doesn't leave me open to the prejudice and politics regarding resale value and general desecration of an icon, it's obviously the way to go. I thank all of you who had anything to say on the issue in threads gone by. It certainly helped in making the decision. I made a small 'center drill' holder that drills a shallow pilot hole in the exact center of the plate hole using a hand held drill motor. I then drill the block in my usual manner, in the piano. It produces a far better job (center-wize) than I have ever seen on ANY production instrument without plate bushings. That's certainly good enough for me. Thanks again. Ron Nossaman
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