Pianotech

Was called in to tune a Yamaha C7 that travels with the band. In this location for tonight only. It gets tuned at every stop on their tours. The stage manager pointed out that one string needed repair because it had broken at the last show. What I found was this...

this is a first- why would someone totally remove the pins which could have gotten lost and then what ? Its probably a good idea to have a few spare tuning pins as well as pitman dowels in various sizes. 

Someone only knew how to install a new string in a stringing job where the string is put onto the pin and the pin pounded in.

Personally I twist/screw these in (using my T wrench) but you could pound it in, though it might need the next size up by now.

I often run into work done by supposedly qualified tuners who very clearly don't know what they are doing.  Why is it so hard to look at the strings, pins or other parts nearby and attempt to replicate the previous work?  I am not suggesting that we always do the quality of work that earlier ivory installers did or the best Steinway stringers can do, but leaving strings protruding from pins a quarter inch or more or putting five turns cross wrapped over each other or only a half turn in a pin is saddening.

But then it makes a lower bar for us to reach, though lets hope we don't get blamed for previous poor work.

When I was prepping for my RTT test in the early eighties, I was asked if I would remove a tuning pin to make a new coil. Correct answer was to back the pin out just enough, not take it out. 

I was asked because, apparently, pulling the pin was common practice with some. 

OK... Perhaps we should migrate or evolve this discussion into "How do you replace a string"?!

The technique I was taught might not be the absolute best, but it has worked for me for almost 50 years:

I unwind both tuning pins one full turn each, leaving the eyes about perpendicular to the strings.

Thread the new string through any agraffes and into the pin field, often I need to make a slight bend in the string to fit it through tight spaces which I try to do at about the normal location of the string bend (Becket?).

Using a free or spare tuning pin I insert the string into the eye and form exactly two careful and closely wrapped turns on the spare pin, then go 1/2 turn past this. NEVER let the free end of the string protrude from the tuning pin!

I pry the string off of my spare pin (with a screw driver) and place it on the correct original pin, using needle nose pliers I fit the bend into the eye, then I use my pliers to crimp the string a bit more tightly onto the pin.

I thread the string through the bridge pins, over the hitch pin and through the next set of bridge pins, then out over the capo bar to over the pin field.  I cut the string using 4 fingers as my guide. To do this I look at the original stringing coils and I try to get the same number and angle of the bend as the originals by experience and how tightly I cut the string against my fingers (tight or loose).

Then I thread the string past the damper and either through the agraffe or under the capo bar.  At this point it is often easier to handle the string if I remove it from the hitch pin to give myself more room to manuver. Using my spare tuning pin I put another 2 + turns on the string, pry off the string and manuver it onto the original tuning pin. I restore the string to the hitch pin and bridge pins if necessary.

Since I have the same two turns on both tuning pins I now bring the string carefully up to pitch and I attempt to create the same number of turns on both tuning pins.

I typically pinch the string at the hitch pin and gently seat the string at the bridge and all other bends, though in my old age I have begun to suspect that this might not always be best and allowing more natural settling of a string might be better for tone.

My father and grandfather were taught to unwind the tuning pin three turns and wind the turns onto the original tuning pin.  I feel that this over-stresses the tuning pin in the block.

On a bass string or a single-tied treble string I usually measure and cut at a tight 4 fingers.

When stringing I do something similar, but tap in the new tuning pins with the new string.

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Blaine Hebert RPT
Duarte CA
(626) 795-5170
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