Michael, Though some posters tend to word things rather strongly (as have you), I'd suggest taking it in stride. Most of us have a hard time at one point or another when our belief systems are questioned. You wrote: "I would gladly consider changing methods if Tom can explain what has radically changed about piano tensions, soundboards, bridges, strings & the climate affecting them over the last 41 years that would cause me to." It's not the piano that has changed it's our understanding of and application of the physics of pianos. The world used to be flat too. It didn't change, our understanding did. Those who were entrenched in their belief system accepted it much less rapidly than others. You wrote, "...premise about the drop being because of back scale tension I find highly unlikely as I pound my tunings in, again an old habit I was taught was best & that has served me well." Again, you seem to have a belief system that suggests that pounding in a tuning stabilizes back scale tensions adequately. Ron (and others) believe this to be a false premise. Simply believing that what you've done for your entire career doesn't make it true. You wrote, "As for my comments about Protek, IMHO I got along without it for the first 30 years of my career & after I purchased some I did not find it to be the panacea that many others have. " No one is suggesting that Protek is a panacea. They (and I) firmly believe it reduces friction at the capo and agraffes - I also use it on the Steinway Ski Slope when it seems justified. It does reduce friction, simple as that, and a reduction in friction of bearing points cannot do anything but reduce the incidence of broken strings. No panacea, just judicious application of modern materials. You wrote, "Obviously I'm totally wrong about strings stretching, that would explain why none of us EVER has to return to touchup those new strings. It also explains why we don't have to tune new or newly restrung pianos any more often than old pianos. I know there is the bending of/settling of the wire around the bridge pins, agraffes, etc. sometimes for a year ot more but no stretching." I'm not sure if you are still being sarcastic or if you indeed are recognizing that strings do undergo an initial stretch as they are brought to a specified tension, but that continued stretching (creep) does not happen in any measurable way without a corresponding increase in tension. We do return to touch up the new string because of wire bending, (probably primarily) and who knows what other forces/movements, but not string creep. Having said all this, I think many of us would do well to recognize that when our belief systems (some long established) are being challenged, that is a good thing. That is how learning and professional growth happen. It doesn't mean we haven't been (or aren't continuing to do) great work. I think most of us on this list are. But we certainly need to be open to new thought, lest we stagnate into a puddle. ;-] William R. Monroe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100930/6c745a55/attachment.htm>
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