Replacing Spinet Strings - the Coil

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Roberts <kpiano@goldrush.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: Replacing Spinet Strings - the Coil


> How will one pull the curtain rod off and feed the wire under the pressure
> bar with the coils on?

    I think the curtain rod method is mainly for the understrung area (when
you have to pass a tenor string under the bass strings).  The rod works to
get the string down to the hitch pin, where you fasten it with some clamp
(hemostat, vise grips, binder clip, etc.).  Then you remove the rod, but
hang on to the string ends, poke them up under the pressure bar, then make
your coils, etc.
    The dang curtain rod gets bent or kinked easily.  I made another tool
which is a slat of wood with two parallel lengths of brass tubing (large
enough to take the thickest tenor wire, like #21 or 22) epoxied to grooves
in it (the slat).

Does the paper clip idea work well when you feed the
> hitch loop under the pressure bar first?

    Yeah, it keeps the new string from wandering very far, but you still
need something to push or pull the string down to the hitch pin if it
doesn't feed by hand.

    I guess the weave on the stringing
> braid, if any, doesn't matter?

    Oh, not really -- you have to go through extra planning and a careful
sequence to get it the way it was.  Or if it's close to a break, just
un-"weave" the stringing braid and re-weave it when you're done (impractical
in a spinet or in the understrung area).  Never thought about it, but I
guess understrung "=" overstrung, i.e., the tenor is understrung relative to
the bass, and vice versa . . . .

How about pulling the wire on past the pin
> and coming onto the becket from the top? Start the coil and pull the slack
> out so it doesn't get caught up in the other pins?

    Sounds difficult, and if you're pulling the wire toward you so it
doesn't hang on other tuning pins, then the coil doesn't wind right and
tends to overlap turns -- Dick Beaton's suggestion of orienting the tuning
pin hole horizontally, then making a 90 deg. bend in the wire (the becket)
sounds easier.  My way is to make the hitch pin bend, pre-wind coils, which
makes the bend that goes into the tuning pin, then thread string behind
pressure bar and pull it thru with stringing hook, attach paper clip, push
or pull string down to hitch pin, fasten, then put coils on pins, etc.
    Pull the strings sharp of their intended pitch, then squeeze the hitch
pin loop together, tug left or right on the strings above and below the
bridge pins with the stringing hook so as to help the string make its bends,
tap the string with a brass drift just below the upper bearing bar (to level
it with the other 2 strings of the unison), and seat the strings at the
hitch pin and on the bridge.  Don't forget to lift the coils on the tuning
pin, and to give the becket a final squeeze.  All this helps the string to
stabilize at pitch sooner.  And leave it sharp and/or put a cloth or felt
mute in it 'til you can come back and touch it up.
    --David Nereson, RPT, Denver