•I wrote several editions ago [MMD 980812] about our church piano that was sprayed with an ABC dry powder fire extinguisher. I don't know what the "tech" cleaned it with but I could still see powder around the hitch pins and agraffes. Upon playing the piano my wife complained about the tone which, u...

•[ Jon Page wrote to John: ] > The broken wire is in the piano, the splice is the add-on. > > First make a loop on the wire. Make the loop on the splice and > little larger so the wire loop will pass through. Making a slight > bend in the strings at the cross-over helps to align them. The > loops ne...

•My book, "Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding", includes a four-step procedure for tying a knot in a string, as illustrated by Douglas Strong in the "Piano Technicians Journal" issue of November 1972 (and used with permission). It is shown on p. 106 of the second edition of my book. When I pull ...

•John A. Tuttle wrote in 000115 MMD: > Actually, your picture told the whole story. The 'trick' is making > the loop in the existing string big enough to allow the loop in the > replacement piece of wire to pass though it and the up-bends so the > two loops align better. When splicing onto an existi...

•Greetings: In MMD 000415 Jon Page recommended GC Piano in Toronto for supplying replacement bass strings. Since MMDigest has tolerated (encouraged?) comparisons of suppliers of various products related to our interests, I wondered if a few of you could comment on your experiences with bass string m...

•Craig Brougher wrote [020328 MMDigest]: > I chip up my strings just once after I have strung the entire piano > and put them all "in the cracks." That means about 20 cents sharp. > Then I tune it down (in general) to A=440Hz +5 cents ... The old idea > that "strings need to stretch first", and that...

•Actually, the number of times a piano with new strings needs to be tuned depends greatly upon the procedures used to bring it up to pitch to begin with. I'll try to explain. Most amateur tuners (and some pros, for that matter) go about raising the pitch completely wrong. Be it an old string or new...

•I think D.L. Bullock would be interested in a book called "Piano Rebuilder's Handbook of Treble String Tensions and Other Characteristics." It is complied by James H. Donelson and is probably still available. In this book is a computer-generated listing of all sizes and lengths of treble string use...

•It's well worth reading Samuel Wolfenden's book, "The Art of Pianoforte Construction", written in 1916 with a supplement in 1927. He covers this subject with great clarity. Wolfenden was chief technician for Aeolian in the UK and is still widely quoted in piano technology writing today. His descrip...

•I just came on to this topic in today's posting. The topic of pitch raising and overpull has been discussed extensively on the Pianotech discussion list. Search their archives: http://www.ptg.org/ http://www.ptg.org/tech.htm http://www.ptg.org/archive/pianotech/ New wire will stretch for a period u...

•> On an older piano the strings are pretty much stretched so the > only reason for the piano going flat is plate compression and > case deformation. I would like to clarify this statement. I was referring to the piano going flat during a pitch raising, not the loss of tension over a period of time...

•As a few more asides to stringing an old piano with new music wire, I'd like to comment a bit more on some ideas mentioned here. As I said in my first post, I have never had to tune a piano more than once to get it stable after I strung it and chipped it about 20 cents above pitch the first time. I...

•Having no practical experience of tuning, still a thought appears in my engineer's mind on how to reduce the number of tuning rounds after restringing a piano. For the matter of explanation I will use a few very round figures: On one hand, the total stretching force on all strings in a piano is to ...

•Greetings fellow collectors, I was wondering if anyone has the string scale for a 1930 Weber "FR" Duo-Art Grand. This is the larger of the two Weber Duo-Art models. Many thanks, John Del Carlo

•Greetings fellow collectors, Back in October, 2012, I had posted a request for the string scale of a 1930 Weber "FR" Duo-Art grand, the larger of the two Duo-Art pianos Weber made. I did get an email at that time from one person that said he has that info, and would be happy to send it to me; howev...

•In my opinion "dull" or "tubby" bass notes in old upright pianos is mostly caused by a build-up of dirt and corrosion between the windings and the core wire, or by a loss of down-bearing (caused by many things, mostly loss of crown in the soundboard -- not an "easy fix"). I have had sometimes very ...

•Regardless of whether you clean or replace the strings on your player piano, it is a long and dirty job requiring specialist tools. Once you have removed the stack, the piano action and keys, it's time to tip your player piano on its back using a 'bench truck'; this is for easy access (and life) to...

•I would like to thank each one of the individuals who contributed advice to my question on how to renew or rejuvenate piano strings. Thank you very much! As of right now, I don't think a complete string changing is needed; maybe in four years. The strings (now 107 years old) still put out a nice, g...

•While scanning a large and unsorted collection of rolls, I ran across two rolls which had lost their boxes, something I have grown accustomed to. Usually there's enough clues for me to figure out the roll company, but these two defied my attempts. I've attached a scan from one of them of the only c...

•Could the "P" be for Play-Rite of Milwaukee? Karl Schröder