Unusual Event

[Bill Ballard]

This afternoon. I was tuning a Bosendorfer 225 (ca 1978), and just 
above the top treble break, inside that top section, noticed that a 
string kept refusing to hold pitch. Hmmm, I thought, a wire about to 
bust. And soon enough, there was a loud PFanng!, and the entire 
bottom half of that section had its unisons thrown down by 200-300¢.

There was no broken wire, and I looked feverishly for a break in the 
plate. No cigar again. Then I noticed that the bearing nut (a 1/3 
round steel rod set under the bolt-down capo bar) had slipped off the 
flat surfaced where it belonged and was now down under the strings 
approximately below the capo's V. The top half of the rod's length 
was still in place, and these unisons were fine. Boy, talk about the 
day when you learn the value of extra underwear out in the car!

I chipped up the affected strings to temporarily restore the tuning, 
and explained to the pianist, that there was a chance that the rest 
of the rod must follow suite, and that I would be back as soon as I 
could to relocate the bearing nut (Bose's version of a front duplex). 
It seems like a simple repair, except that I have know idea what the 
cross-section looks like (the lay of the land, so to speak), whether 
that cross-section would require that the bearing nut be pinned in 
place, and whether infact, it was such such a pin which failed in 
this case.

I've already left a message on the answering machine of the PN for 
Bosendorfer listed in the PTG Directory. Has anybody else had this 
happen to them?

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"May you work on interesting pianos."
     ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb
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