Yes, Jurgen, it was the strings resting against the coils of the next string that I was referring to. I have to totally agree with your comments though! The straight line of the strings is rather nice too. I just got annoyed because I had to fit two new strings and felt that having all the strings resting aagainst the coils of their neighbours complicated things! I had obtained two pairs of strings, so as to replace both the strings in each of the two bichords that had a broken string. But having fitted one new string in each, I found that the sound of the two notes with one-old-one-new was OK, which must also, I guess, say something for the quality of the 1880s strings. I replaced all the hammer butt notch felts on this piano, as many were worn through to the wood, and at the same time replaced 28 broken hammer return springs (the kind in the hammer butt), as well as fitting new damper felts, and the action is nice and quiet now for its age. Happily the key bushings are not too worn or noisy. (I know, I know, why not replace ALL the hammer butt springs. But that bit was done as a kinda favour, and the remaining ones seemed good, I plied them all vigorously and none broke). In general I have gotten lucky in the past with upright damper felt replacement, and found that they all seated well and worked well with little adjustment. This old Bechstein was different! It's made me more cautious about doing upright damper felts again! What's interesting with this old Bechstein, and a few others of the same vintage I have tuned, is that I've been able to compare them with some brand new Bechsteins, and to me they same to belong to what I might call the same tone quality "family", as if the designers 130 years ago and today, were aiming for a similar result. In general, then, do you design folks think its OK to have strings resting against the coils on neighbouring strings? Best regards, David. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120329/9540bf87/attachment.htm>
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