Breaking strings...

[Mike Masters]

Phil Ryan wrote:
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I'm a newbie at tuning and ran across this situation- I was tuning an
> old (1920's) Edward Mason grand with the original strings. A quarter of
> the way through, pop! broke a treble string. No problem, I need the
> practice installing strings.Then pop!, another one.
> Pop...pop...pop...all the way up to ten broken treble strings, five or
> six notes apart, before I quit.  Yes, I used liquid wrench on the vbar
> and agraffes.  My question is-  how many strings should one break before
> declaring the piano untunable and in need of a restringing or
> rebuilding.  The owner is only interested in having it "tuned."  Any
> advice?
> 
> Phil Ryan
> Associate, PTG
> pryan2@bellsouth.net

Phil,
For future reference, one thing I watch for in old pianos is pitch 
correction. Under *normal* circumstances, a piano of this age should not 
have strings breaking from tuning alone, in my opinion and experience. 
Strings begin to break when it has been an extremely long time since it 
was tuned and the strings are set at the bearing points pretty well. The 
liquid wrench may help the slide over the capo and through the agraffes, 
but it won't help that initial movement that causes the strings to 
break. When I was a newbie (now I'm an old newbie), if I had a string 
break on an old piano that required a pitch correction or just hadn't 
been tuned for a long time, I always made it a habit to lower the pitch 
before raising it. I have never once broken a string using this method. 
I don't always do this now, only if I can tell there is going to be a 
problem (after you gain more experience you can tell) or if I do break a 
string. I have never used liquid wrench to help the movement across the 
bearing points. So I can't really tell you from experience if it works. 
To my recollection, the only pianos that I have ever broken more than 
one or two strings are those with a breaking point just above pitch. 
Kimball pianos from a few years back are one of these. As for how far do 
you go for pushing restringing, I once read an article from a rather 
well know technician titled, If it ain't broke.....Break it. Use your 
best judgement and have fun. 8<) 

Mike Masters
Masters Piano Service
Lakewood, OH