Hitch Pin Replacement Question

[Farrell]

I'm not Jon, but that won't stop me........  ;-)

I usually replace all hitch pins with vertical. However, sometime the client 
wishes to retain the rear duplex look/whatever - not a problem. The vertical 
hitches have more positive impact on the piano as ones moves down the scale 
toward the bass anyway. I suspect it could easily be debated how much 
benefit comes from the vertical hitch in the high treble.

I don't see why/how whether you have vertical hitches or standard would 
affect target downbearing. Most rear duplexs I've worked with are only a few 
millimeters tall, so that works out well for how high I would want my string 
on an adjacent vertical hitch pin.

I agree with you about just whacking the old hitch pins off with a cold 
chisel. Fast & easy. Then I fair the area with some fairing epoxy.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
> You mentioned that you replaced only the bass and tenor section hitchpins
> with a vertical hitchpin.  Why not the whole enchilada?
> Am I corrected in surmising that the piano on which you left the treble
> hitch pins alone had rear duplexes?  If so, how did you set bearing
> combining the two techniques? What was your reasoning in keeping the rear
> duplexes?
>
> I have done one set of bass bridge hitch pins changing to a vertical hitch
> pin.  I followed Ron Nossaman's advice and sheared off the old hitch pins
> with a cold chisel.  Took all of 10 minutes once I got going.  Then center
> punched and drilled the vertical holes with the plate under my drill 
> press.
> Once I overcame the fear factor, it was actually pretty simple and
> straightforward.
>
> Will Truitt