Bass String Installation

[Nichols]

At 07:55 AM 1/27/2006 -0800, you wrote:
>Some years ago, the technician I used to work with was removing the strings
>on a Sohmer "Butterfly" (I think it was), a small baby grand.  As he was
>letting the tension down, the plate cracked near a treble strut.
>Apparently, this model is prone to break there.  So, not every piano can
>take a massive change in tension in the bass.
>
>         Paul McCloud
>         San Diego

That puppy was gonna break there anyway. Especially the strut at the far 
treble end. We've seen a bunch of the over-tensioned Sohmers come in broken 
or break when we tear down or string-up and of course many that have 
already been fixed. There's plenty of room to weld a strap on the far right 
and re-scale slightly to reduce the tension with fair results. Of course, 
there's always farther one could go with redesign, but hardy worth it. Of 
the "economically viable" instruments that come through the plant, those 
are the only ones that are soooo prone to breakage. The birth defect seems 
to cover a pretty wide range of vintages. Dunno for sure, we get real 
cautious with  Sohmer  of any age.

Otherwise, I'd have to agree with those who consider it safe to unstring 
the bass. It does affect the tenor pitch more than doing just a few at a 
time, but you're gonna tune it anyway. It's much more efficient to unstring 
the whole section.

Regards,
Guy Nichols, RPT