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Exactly! I've had pianos do that often on me and have done that exact same thing, ordered a full set so I've always got at least one on hand and then order them separately thereafter as necessary.

The good thing is that with two identical pianos, one set should be sufficient, as the chances that the same string will break on both pianos at the same time are slim. It is like why two bathrooms are usually sufficient for several people, while one bathroom may not be sufficient for two people.

They ordered them when they bought the pianos. Not in yet.

They did the same for the K&C's. Those strings are still in the storeroom, so I thought I'd see if I could at least use them as a temporary fix, but the windings are in the wrong position by ~5". Even if I removed some windings to clear the agraffe, the square portion of the wire would pass through it. I figured that would be one compromise too many.

Acutally, they bought two sets for the K&C's and they needed them. Over the course of nine years, they broke a lot of bass strings.

And a lot more treble strings...

Got called in today. One of the unisons that had a broken string already broke the second. Fortunately, the broken string was still in the trash, so I rescued it and spliced.

I asked them to notify the players to save the broken bass strings in the future if at all possible.

Jim, you tune left handed ?

I would comment on the position of the lever : this position is good to lower the pitch, when using it to raise a note the pin is directly pushing on its bed;

if I where to tune left hand, I would use the lever on the external of the piano if possible.

It sound possible with that very long tip. However, I would avoid such long tip as a too large source for flagpolling ; very short is not necessary in my view, but "standard" with a moderate angle, seem to suit well my way of doing things.

Do you have a recording of those new pianos that break strings ? why not regulate them with too much key dip and large letoff, so some energy is lost but the pianist can still look like if they try to break the piano (if this necessity is dictated by the show) ?

[video:youtube]SpDgdpkdSDI[/video]

On that piano , G5 and F#5 for instance, are prone to break strings if played brutally.

Samefor that one :
http://youtu.be/gOV8d7EzwH0

They had two sets of spare bass strings for the K&C's, and we had agreed it would be best to order sets for the Brodmanns. But, the owners assumed it would be a while before they started popping strings again, so they hadn't ordered them yet. They're on order now.

Right now, I'm jury rigging the old spares to fit if possible.

That would be a logical assumption, but, since these pianos play mostly rock n' roll, they play a lot of songs in the same few keys, most A, E, B, and G. As a result, the keys in those strings get hammered the most. In the stage left piano - the *new* one, mind you - E2 has had THREE strings break so far. One of those broke twice.

The SR piano has had Bâ™­2 and G3 break so far.

Hey OT,

What is the latest string tally on the new pianos? I only have ten fingers to count on. Oh, I can start using my toes. Do the lid dancers ever jump on the keyboards?

I would sooooooooooooo like to go to that club!!!!!!

Isaac, I somehow completely missed this post.

Yes, I tune left-handed; I always have.

As for that long tip, I had only recently gotten it, and was trying it out. I have gone back to my short tip that I've had since 1976.

Regarding letoff adjustment, yes, maybe we'll do just that.

Hey Jim!

With all of that string swappin' you been doin', got any magic tricks to keep a new string at pitch? Just wondering if you've tried everything and found something that has a better chance of keeping a new bass string at pitch for a good long while...

Ron Koval

Geez, I missed this.

What I do won't apply to other situations, since i see these pianos every week.

I always do string replacement before I do anything else when I get to the club, and tune the piano with the worst/most broken string(s) last. After I replace the string(s), I come back to it multiple times while I'm doing other things and over pull it by 5-10 cents, and I seem to be able to get a lot of stretch accomplished by doing this before I tune, so it will at least hold for a couple of days without sounding noticeably out of tune. However, by the time I come back the next week, it's usually noticeably bad, but then, I'm there to tune it again.

On a side note(no pun intended), I've discovered I have a knack for remembering what I did previously. I can walk in, open the lid, and remember which strings I replaced from week to week, even the plain wire.

That was a major challenge with the K&C's and all of the broken plain wire strings; most of their instability was due to the sheer volume of strings replaced.

Bass string update:

The frequency (again, no pun intended) of bass string breakage seems to be falling off. I've only had one let go in the last three weeks. And it was one of my improvised substitutions. I'm half-tempted to attribute that to the weather: Even with A/C, the humidity went up so much the pianos raised ~5 cents across the board in one week.

Update:

Some of the bass string saga was covered in the other thread on the subject, but I thought I'd put the latest here.

Schaff is making new strings as we speak, and they're doing a little redesign work to lessen the tension and hopefully prevent future breakage.

I took this photo of one of the pianos today, after splicing yet a second string on that one - I always try to splice first if it breaks at the agraffe, especially since at the moment, it's just a matter of time anyway. It's funny, my splices have held as well as the intact strings...

You can also see some of the horrible match-ups with windings. The new strings will have slightly different winding dimensions and will invariably sound different than the originals, but then, how much worse could it possibly be than these duds?

Are you aware of the pitch lock clips? http://pitchlock.com/pitch-lock-string-couplers/

I find them helpful in unifying the sounding pitch of mis-matched bass strings. It's kinda weird to tune with them - if you tune one string first and then bring the other to tune with it, there is a couple of cent pitch drop. Most of the time I tune with both strings sounding; a little different skill-set!

Some of the unisons in the picture would be hard to fit the clips with the knots - just place them on the bridge end... They are a good "quickie" to have in your bag of tricks! Also good with front segment noise up in the capo section...

Ron Koval

Hi Ron, never heard of them. I'll have to look into it, thanks!

Oh happy day, or so I hope. The new, rescaled, replacement bass strings arrived at my house yesterday, and I'm taking them in to the club today.



We're hoping these, being lower tension, will minimize future breakage. And now, even when we need more replacements in the future, Schaff has the scale on file, and can whip one out whenever we need it.

A big thanks to Ed at Schaff, and to Ron Koval for the help!

A long overdue update (as if anyone cares...):

About two months after coming up with our own strings, the set from Brodmann arrived. I'm in the process of using them up, along with the strings from Schaff. Despite our rescaling efforts, even the new strings break. But, at least, now we have a steady, reliable supply of replacements from Schaff. They have the scale saved digitally, so I can simply call them up with the string and scale number, and they can whip them out.

One thing remarkable is that we have yet to pop a plain wire string on these pianos. The treble strings have stabilized as a result, and the tunings are easy these days.

I should post pictures of the pianos in their current condition. A lot of the polyester finish is already chipped off the edges of the lids, and the lids are pretty scratched up from people dancing on them. I went to the club one night, and one piano had a 275 lb server holding another employee who had to weigh in at ~175 himself! I could see the legs flex...

But, the pianos are sounding good enough, and everyone's happy.

Glad this interesting thread is back!

Photos of the "dance floor" pianos would be great.