Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Frequently breaking bass strings on Kawai K5 upright

A customer of mine has 2 years old K5, with 3 broken bass strings in last 20 days. Always the different string. The piano is played by 14 years old boy, so I don"t think that he abuses the piano. Does any of you have similar problem with that model, or it is an isolated case here? The K5 looks like a very good instrument to me, everything else is ok with it.

Any time a string is breaking especially that often, it is more often abuse than not. 14 years old? So what? They can break them as good as anyone else can.. It is like a drummer breaking drum sticks. For some people it is fun to see how many they can break.

A K5 is a nice piano.

It is probably another case of "pedal to the metal and keep pounding those bass notes". Check the archives - much has been written on this.

Yep!
Pedal down, repeated rythmic pounding of the bass.

In my area certain flavors of gospel piano players use the style and break strings like crazy. The worst I ever saw was a little old lady church pianist. Every church she played for - same thing.

It isn't the piano's fault. It's the operator.

Yup! Pedal to the metal - 'Love it. 'Bet that's exactly what's happening. Search for- Shout House Pianos -, or that "Sandy Eggo" fella.

Maybe this time, it's David's fault!?

It pains me to witness gratuitous damage to a good well built piano.

Even if strings were beginning to rust, (again, not the fault of the piano). String breaking isn't normal.

Education is the answer. Tell him and parents what is causing it - that's Is your duty.

Who is paying for the repairs?

He will be short on pocket money for a good few weeks.

Problem is, he wasn't to know. Nobody normally warns against this problem and some of the strings that haven't yet broken may have been severely weakened. (in my experienced, in a good piano like this one, weakened strings, when returned to normal use still have enough strength left to give normal service.

Bit of a quandary. Eh?

The most weakened strings are the lonely remnant strings of the bichords - the unisons with only one string left standing. These strings take the full brunt of the blows delivered after the partner string is gone. They fail next, so warn the parents of this likelihood.

I have had a few situations where this was happening repeatedly, so much so that I would go ahead and replace both stings on the spot with the best choice of universals. (I carry two of most sizes of both the coarse core and the finer core universals with me in a separate string box. After all, the piano is being beaten to death, a drum kit is flailing away three feet from the piano, so what do they care, obviously, if the replacement strings are universals or exact replacements?

Yep, my van is pretty full: Piano cradle, action cradle, string box, voicing box, stinging tool box. Oh well, I digress, but, if I am offered room and board, I travel equipped enough to almost do a minor rebuild right there at the house.
Just kidding!

both strings are changed usually at last on a good piano.

In a truck I would have drill press and compressed air

I made all sort of repairs on site, changing hmmers and shanks (drilling on site), keyboards bushings, new string set.

Mostly on usual maintenance job I need to add a large pinning job, and alittle keyboard repair.

With enough experienc we know beforehand which tools and parts we will need. What misses the most is a good table often.


For some reason, people call me to come sometime far, while I know there are competent techs locally.

Probable communication problems betyween tech and piano owner may lend to that situation.

There is one colleague of mine who works all around the country at a high level. (very expensive, also !)

I have been successful at guilting students ( and faculty) out of breaking strings at one of the London conservatories by leaving broken strings for a week before repair and, much as I deplore signs, I have put some up explaining how unnecessary it is to break strings in creating a huge sound. Other students have pencilled names of known string breakers and another student put up their own sign asking who the idiot was who broke a string. Yet another student crossed out 'idiot' and wrote in "wanker" which is a British term of abuse meaning the person the term is directed at was only interested in their own selfish pleasure.

That particular sign has since been taken down but it has been most effective.

Naw. These aren't wire cutters in my hand. They're a special type of ... uh, ... key easing pliers. Yea, that it. They're key easing pliers. Ahm innocent again.

That remind of me asking the pianist not to play the piano because it have been tuned !

(some of them find it funny, just before the rehearsal)

Good fight against string breakers RXD ! congratulations !

An intelligent musician knows never to touch another musicians instrument. The same applies to a piano once it has been set up for a specific artist. An intelligent musician respects this too. The piano has become another musicians instrument.

Sure most musicians know that at last intuitively.

I used to say that to the pianist who was supposed to play for the concert (if I knew him enough )


Another one is that the piano need to rest 24 hours because it was just tuned

We know that many pianists break strings, but it does seem that sometimes there are other factors. One of my large churches had a Kawai RX2 donated to them in 2005. Within five months the first bass string broke, with more to follow. The previous piano, a Mason Hamlin grand, had been played on by the same pianist for years without any string breakage. Also her 1960 something Baldwin grand at home had no breakage.

After the ninth string, Kawai generously offered to pay for a replacement bass set from Mapes. These have been in place for 5 years now with with two broken strings in the last year. If she breaks them I will come, but all strings, or pianos, are not equal.

I have observed that some makes are more susceptible to breaking strings under heavy use. It also makes a difference to the pianists perception of balance between the hands whether a grand lid is up or down.

How big was the M&H? A smaller piano will not produce the bass that a larger piano will and any attempt to reproduce what a first class larger piano was giving is doomed.

Different styles of music produce different string breaking patterns.

This is an interesting discussion re the evils of string breaking. There is a contrary view, however.

I knew a really great pianist/teacher who used to say:
"If you are afraid of breaking your piano, do you know what that means? It means you need a different piano!"

I'm not taking sides here. But, there is a viewpoint that pianos are meant to be used for the expression of the artist. The artist should not feel restrained in what he can do, or try to do, by the limitations of instrument. If the instrument is limiting the artist, then the instrument is worthless.

This isn't necessarily MY view. But, it is a view that I've encountered and I thought it deserved to be mentioned.

My flame suit is on and I'm running for cover.

You are entirely right, Joe. I hear it from the composition faculty continually.

I just spent a few hours yesterday resetting bent damper wires and other anuses on a £95,000 concert grand after a composition student recital. The piano had been rendered unplayable for the following recital of serious piano music. The cleaners had to clean up paint that was splashed on the floor. Fortunately none of it got into the piano. Free artistic expression or just being wankers?, (persons only interested in self indulgence, see my earlier posts).

When I was a young trumpet player, many's the time I could have thrown that trumpet against a wall. Free expression or childish temper?

I am always wary of authoritative statements from our more vulgar pundits. There are better qualified pianists who can teach you how to create a large sound on a piano that will mask the sound of a symphony orchestra without doing any damage. There arent many of them but they are there.

A pianist broke a keystick on a grand. He came to me and admitted it showing me where a modern composer had written " violently" and " hammered" on the music. I asked him what does he do when it says " con amore"? You don't have to take poison in order to make an effective morendo. Any competent pianist can make a violent sound on a halfway decemt piano without damaging it.

I have many ideas for making pianos idiot proof. Each one of them would make it less of a musical instrument.

I do see your point but I have another hundred examples.

Bit of a quandary, eh?

What do you or the wise man you quote suggest we do??? I really would like an answer where everybody wins.

Both church pianos are 5'10". The M&H is 1968 model and puts out less overall sound than the Kawai. Her home Baldwin is around 6'4"

My experience with stringbreaking pianists is that it takes a certain touch to do that, a special touch technique. They can breake a string at any time they want to. I have seen it done only by classical pianists on different concert grands, Bösendorfer, Steinway, Yamaha. I think it is just a bad habit.
The cure from rxd sounds great