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Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

  • 1.  Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Member
    Posted 12-11-2023 17:41

    Earlier today I tuned a Baldwin Hamilton Studio and noticed that all of the tangs on the coil wire had about 1/4 inch tang flattened against the pin instead of being cut flush to the pin. Does this add anything of value to the coil and the string . It may have just been factory practice , sloopy work , fad or functional. Comments ?



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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    (843) 325-4357
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  • 2.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-11-2023 17:48
    If by "tangs" you mean the 1/4" of the becket coming out of the other side of the pin, then that's common on Baldwin pianos. They are a pain in the ass when trying to remove the coil because the becket won't come out easily. I've had to cut off the "tang", when trying to remove the coil. 



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-12-2023 01:47

    This is common on inexpensive American consoles and spinets from the 1960s to the 1980s (dates anyone?).

    As I recall it was produced by the partially automated machines that installed the strings and pins.  It is mildly annoying when replacing the strings and probably has some function in assuring that the string is properly inserted into the pin.

    It is VERY annoying when an inexperienced technician takes it as an example of a good stringing technique.  A Baldwin grand I tuned today was restrung by the lowest bidder (not me) and every string hangs out of the pin by 1/8" to 1/4" making cleaning difficult.

    The best technique is to replace a string with as close to the original style as possible (number of coils and bends in the same place), though you don't need to copy these hanging string ends.



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    Blaine Hebert RPT
    Duarte CA
    (626) 390-0512
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-12-2023 09:37

    The extended, reversed beckets on Baldwin pianos have been a topic of discussion for many decades. When Jack Krefting was a big cheese at Baldwin in the 1980s I asked him about them. His reply was they were present so "workers could move strings and pins around in the stringing department and the pins wouldn't fall off." Um... WHAT??? As if a pin would fall off a coiled string without this provision?



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    David Hughes RPT
    Vintage Case Parts
    Glyndon MD
    (443) 522-2201
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Posted 12-12-2023 11:18

    David- I read that batches of strings were cut to length in advance and tuning pins locked on with the bend. Then I believe they were sorted in some sort of rack, ready to be grabbed and pounded in, with just enough slack to allow the coils to pull the string tight....perhaps....



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    Ed Sutton
    ed440@me.com
    (980) 254-7413
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-12-2023 14:18

    Ed Sutton: Yes, I heard that story, too. The point is that even if the pins were attached to the dangling, at-the-ready strings with pins wound on them in the normal fashion, the pins would not fall off. So, why the extended, reverse-bent becket? The truth lies elsewhere.



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    David Hughes RPT
    Vintage Case Parts
    Glyndon MD
    (443) 522-2201
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-12-2023 18:13
    Dave,
    I was at the Kohler & Campbell factory in North Carolina and watched the stringing procedure. The way it was done, the wire was precut to length and they had a machine that had the tuning pins in it and would feed two of them out at a time, then a worker would take a length of wire and put each end of the wire into the pins, the wire would then make an electrical contact in the machine and then turn the tuning  pin approximately three revolutions. The extra length of wire was needed to make the electrical contact, the machine also bent the extra wire over. Then the tuning pins with the wire attached was put in large panel that had enough holes in it for all the tuning pins. The stringer would the take the pins with the attached wire and install them in the piano. I forget the exact time it took to put all the strings on but, I think it was something like thirty minutes. The machine ended up at Mason and Hamlin, I dont think they ever used it.

    I was a Kohler & Campbell dealer and was at the factory for three days and became good friends with the plant manager, head technician and engineer. They were on the verge on redesigning the hole line right before they closed.

    John
     



    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Member
    Posted 12-12-2023 22:50

    All of the responses have made for great reading. This was the first time in a long time that I saw this. Our school system had about 20 Hamiltons none with the tangs like this one. It would have been interesting to see the machine that John mentioned. It would be interesting as well to see if pianos close in serial number to this one had the tangs. The big question is how the strings got through the agraffes our under the pressure bar if pre-wound on the tuning pins



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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    (843) 325-4357
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-13-2023 08:11

    James Kelly: I do not believe any of the Baldwin verticals utilized agraffes, and the pressure bar is applied to the plate after the piano is strung. Thus, the loop ends of the paired (pre-coiled) strings do not need to be inserted under the pressure bar at the time of stringing. Only we as piano technicians in the field have to slide new music wire under the pressure bar when replacing a string. Ugh!



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    David Hughes RPT
    Vintage Case Parts
    Glyndon MD
    (443) 522-2201
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Member
    Posted 12-13-2023 13:02

    That is a great insight into how it is done. I keep my little umbrella rib in my stringing kit. I have never seen tangs on a grand but never say never in this business. I read about aluminum plates and the very next day the vertical piano I had to tune had ALCOA on the silver plate. I was aware of the problem with expanding action brackets and suddenly had several Young Changs with the problem 



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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    (843) 325-4357
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Bent Tangs on Tuning Pins

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 12-13-2023 08:31

    Great stuff here, John Zeiner! Thank you!



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    David Hughes RPT
    Vintage Case Parts
    Glyndon MD
    (443) 522-2201
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    Original Message