Harpsichord dabbling...

[John Ross]

I find it interesting, that you feel the wire from that vintage is too 
brittle to make a loop.
I must give it a try, and see.
I can't see any reason, as to why the wire would age and become brittle.
I can see it being brittle, if the quality was suspect in the first place.
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Israel Stein" <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 8:28 PM
Subject: Harpsichord dabbling...


> At 08:08 PM 10/18/2007, Anne Acker wrote:
>
>>Dear Ric,
>>
>>How would you like the idea of harpsichord builders "dabbling" in piano 
>>work?
>
> Anne,
>
> Interesting that you should use such an analogy... I actually did run into 
> such a case in the mid-90's, back when I was living and working in Boston. 
> This is when the harpsichord builder Erich Hertz fell on hard times and 
> started dabbling in some piano work here and there to help make ends meet. 
> It wasn't pretty, I had to clean up after him a couple times... And at one 
> time (here in California) I was asked to testify in a small-claims suit 
> against a harpsichord builder who replaced a pinblock on a piano - and 
> swore in court that he made sure that every tuning pin had at least 20 
> lbs. of torque on it!!  But then again there was a piano tuner in Boston 
> who took on a harpsichord job and "corrected" the tuning pin height and 
> the string coils for starters, and then installed front pins and felt 
> punchings in the poor instrument (it had rear guides...)
>
> All I can say is that at least the "dabblers" here on this list ask about 
> things they aren't familiar with... That's worth some credit, I think...
>
> Oh, by the way...  I would advise against using harpsichord wire - from 
> whatever source - that has been lying around since before Tuners' Supply 
> went out of business. I have some of that vintage, and it is too brittle 
> to make a loop out of... (some day I'll toss it...)
>
> Israel Stein
>
>
>
>>Harpsichord voicing and regulation are earned skills, just as hammer 
>>voicing or piano regulation are.  I'm hoping that "dabbling" was a playful 
>>and not serious choice of words there.  Perhaps the plumber would like to 
>>dabble at piano tuning while he's in the house anyway with wrenches?
>
>
>