More on Tight pins

[Robert Goodale]

John Ross wrote:
<snip>

> He thought he could solve that as well, he took a Bernzomatic torch to
> the tuning pins, and the strings broke left right and centre.  He told
> me, the breakage was  almost instantaneous.

Ya, I've done that myself on an old junked piano when I worked for a
dealer.  Pretty darn fun if I may say so.    A very interesting noise.

Actually I wasn't suggesting anything like that, rather some type of
modified high-wattage soldering iron clamped on to each one for a couple of
minutes.  I've never heard of anyone doing this sort of thing but I was
just wondering what heat might do to tight pins.  My theory is that the
heat should expand the pin and thus compress the wood.  When it cools the
pin would then shrink to it's original size making it somewhat looser.
Maybe I'll try one or two just to see what happens.

Rob Goodale, RPT