Becket breaker? - Technique

[Allen Wright]

Kendall,

That's a very clear and eloquent disquisition on becket breaker  
technique! and I concur with everything you say. Especially the bit  
about not getting it just right, and ending up with the breaker  
jammed down onto the pin with the string caught between! When that  
first happened to me (and kept happening frequently until I figured  
out what was going on), as I struggled to get the tool off the pin, I  
felt a bit sheepish - like either I didn't know what I was doing or  
the tool was a really bad idea and I shouldn't have wasted my money  
on it...

And yes, when you figure out the right angle, and the right amount of  
force to hit with, it goes very rhythmically.

Best regards,

Allen Wright


On Jul 7, 2008, at 8:41 PM, Kendall Ross Bean wrote:

> Diane~
>
> Hi~
>
> I still use a becket breaker, for the reasons that Allen and the  
> others have described.
>
> I hope I didn't misunderstand what you wrote, but bear in mind that  
> even though you may not have completely severed the becket, you may  
> have nicked it enough so that it broke easily when you backed out  
> the pin with the drill. I have found that beckets I have not tried  
> to break with the becket breaker first will often not break with  
> the drill. (-depends on the wire, and how brittle it is.)
>
> The proper technique with the becket breaker is something that  
> eluded me for some time, until I finally realized what the issue  
> was. Until I discovered it, it was very frustrating trying to use  
> the tool. If you are finding it difficult to break beckets on some  
> pianos, the following may help you. (I noticed that in consulting  
> Reblitz's latest book on servicing tuning and rebuilding, he  
> recommends prying the beckets out after loosening the coils, and  
> doesn't even mention the becket breaker, perhaps because for many  
> people it really isn't an easy tool to learn to use.)
>
> Once you get the technique down, it really only takes 10 to 15  
> minutes to break all the beckets, and I think it makes things a lot  
> neater and more efficient.
>
> (Plus it's a good workout!)
>
> I also prefer leaving coils on string ends where I can, because I  
> feel it makes them less hazardous in disposal (less apt to poke  
> someone's eye out.)
>
> I was training my daughter in how to use the becket breaker (she is  
> apprenticing with me) and even when I taught her what to do, it  
> still took her a little while to get the technique down and to  
> understand why sometimes it worked for her and other times it  
> didn't.  Now she can do it pretty fast (although like me, she still  
> fails sometimes to sever an occasional one and has to go back,  
> reposition the tool, and hit it again. Usually I find that (when I  
> have been restringing regularly) I can pretty much tell by sound  
> and feel whether the becket has truly been severed or not.
>
> I have generally had pretty good success with the becket breaker,  
> (once I learned the tricks), and it does keep the plates from  
> getting scratched up and gouged by broken string ends when spinning  
> the pins out. (Even in the agraffe section of grands, where you  
> have to cut the loops off anyway to get them through the agraffes,  
> I still break the beckets).
>
> Here are some tips on how I do it, which may (or may not!) help you.
>
> I don't know what kind of hammer you use, but I have found it has  
> to have some weight and momentum, ideally. I use the same 2 1/2 or  
> 3 lb sledge I use for restringing, but you may find a somewhat  
> lighter hammer will work also.
>
> Perhaps more important,  I make sure that when I place the becket  
> breaker it's tilted toward the becket, so that its cutting edge is  
> right on the point where the becket enters the hole in the pin.  
> (See attached photo.)  It's like the two blades of a pair of  
> scissors. The inside edge of the becket breaker is one blade, and  
> the side of the hole in the tuning pin is the other. If the edge of  
> the breaker tool is not right up flush against the tuning pin where  
> the wire enters the hole, it's like trying to cut something with a  
> bad pair of scissors. You want to make sure the inside edge of the  
> breaker is right at the intersection of the wire and the hole.  
> (They don't give you any instructions or tell you this when you buy  
> the tool. As a matter of fact, someone ought to write a book on how  
> to use common restringing (and other) tools.)
>
> The becket breaker you usually get from the piano supply houses was  
> designed "oversize" to accomodate a number of different size pins.  
> The ideal shearing tool would fit the pin much more closely but  
> since what we get is a "universal" tool we have to adapt. So you  
> have to personally make sure it's business edge contacts the right  
> spot, which means you have to tilt it slightly to make sure it cuts  
> the becket right at the point where it enters (some people would  
> say "exits") the hole. What happens when you don't make sure the  
> edge of the breaker is right at this junction is that horrible  
> thing where it pulls part of the becket out of the hole and bends  
> it down instead of making a neat cut, trapping the bent becket  
> between the inside of the tool and the tuning pin. Then the fun  
> begins: trying to get the stuck tool off the pin. If you're not  
> feeling strong that day, this can seemingly take forever. This also  
> tends to happen more often on those pianos where they have put the  
> infamous "coil lock" on the pin, requiring special diligence.
>
> Tilting the breaker toward the becket requires an awareness of  
> where the becket is, so it's also easier to do if the previous  
> stringer had the beckets all lined up in the same position, or, if  
> you kept them in alignment/aligned them when you lowered the  
> tension on the strings before shearing the beckets. (You do lower  
> the string tension first, don't you?)  It sounds to me like some  
> technicians don't bother to lower the string tension before either  
> cutting the strings or breaking the beckets. (Personally I don't  
> think this is a good idea - In my experience the beckets are far  
> easier to break when the coils aren't tight, and are extremely  
> difficult or impossible to break if they are. I unwind the pins a  
> quarter turn each (in the proper sequence) when lowering the string  
> tension. This loosens the coils enough to make the beckets easier  
> to break.)
>
> When using a heavier hammer it's important to make sure you don't  
> cause the same problem you're trying to avoid by hitting the tool  
> so hard it drives the coil all the way down into the plate finish!  
> After I got the rhythm it was fairly easy to just raise the sledge  
> a few inches above the tool and let it drop. (See attached photo).  
> Once you get a feel for the exact amount of effort it takes to  
> break the becket, you will be amazed at how quickly it goes.
>
> -and yes, when I first discovered I could snap the string with the  
> drill I was tempted to dispense with the becket breaker too, until  
> I discovered I was spending far longer patching up the dings and  
> gouges that spinning/snapping string ends left in the plate/ 
> soundboard/bridges/me.
>
> One last thought: Even though you are not exerting the same  
> pounding force as when driving new pins, I still think it's a good  
> idea to support the pinblock in a grand when breaking beckets. I  
> feel it also makes it easier to shear the beckets when the pinblock  
> isn't flexing.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> ~Kendall Ross Bean
> PianoFinders
>
> e-mail: kenbean at pianofinders.com
>
>
>
>  <P4082000a.jpg><P4081995a.jpg>

Allen Wright
London, UK

http://www.broadjam.com/akwright




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