•I was totally blown away by John Tuttle stringing a piano in a customer's home [020325 MMDigest]. I can only say I would doubt that I would ever be able to do that. It would be the extremely _rare_ piano that is in good enough shape to do so. 99.9% of the players I find to work on not only need new...

•D.L. Bullock gave us the worst case scenario of what could happen when stringing a piano in a customer's home. The times I have done this they needed only bass strings, but I've repaired the bass bridges at the same time, and replaced the pins and bushings. It's always been just fine. The point is...

•Contact your local piano tuner! That's what they do here "Downunder", for all sorts of cutters, string lines for engineering and construction, engine ring gear, fishing line, special springs and "do it yourself piano people". Terry J Kirwin - Kirwin's Pianos Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia ...

Subscriber Charles Kossman inquired about playing downloaded MIDI files on his Mac. I think you already have the basic tools, Charles. Since you are probably already using the modem port on your Mac you can connect the MIDI interface module to the printer port. (I use a 0 "data transfer switch" to s...

•McMaster Carr sells music wire in 1/4-, 1- and 10-pound coils, spring steel or stainless. Roger Wiegand Wayland, Massachusetts, USA

•Al Menasche asked, "If I obtain strings from Gloria's source, what type of preparation is necessary in order to install them, like winding, the eyelets, etc.?" Answer: These are complete violin strings, ready to install. The D & G have eyelets (loops). The A and E have little balls on the end inste...

•I've recently become involved in the restringing of a Seeburg L. This is the truncated compass small nickelodeon with only piano and mandolin rail. There are eleven wrapped (bass) strings, and the rest are plain wire. Shortly the actual stringing will be complete and it will be time to chip it up t...

•[ Dean Randall asked, "Can any of the nickelodeon experts on [ this list tell me what note the first _plain wire_ string is?" I am no expert but "Treasures of Mechanical Music", by Arthur Reblitz and Q. David Bowers, says: "The Seeburg Style L cabinet piano has only 54 playing notes for the 58 note...

•[ Dean Randall asked, "Can any of the nickelodeon experts on [ this list tell me what note the first _plain wire_ string is?" In the Seeburg Lilliputian L version, there is only 54 playing notes, whereas in most A-roll pianos, you have 58 playing notes. The lowest note is a B, not an A#, and there ...

•[ Dean Randall asked, "Can any of the nickelodeon experts on [ this list tell me what note the first _plain wire_ string is?" The tuning of our Seeburg "L": The first _plain wire_ string is A#, which equates to the third A# on a standard piano. I am not sure if this is correct, but our nickelodeon ...

•Greetings all, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who responded to my request for information about the pitch of the first plain wire string on a Seeburg L. So -- thanks to Art Reblitz, Craig Brougher, Bruce Clark, Jack Conway, George Bogatko, Don Teach, Robbie, and the others who k...

•While on the subject of late Aeolians, I have discovered that on certain 1980s Aeolians (Cabarets and Sting, Sting II; I wish I would have taken better note of serial numbers) the piano action return springs weaken and break. I have replaced the return springs in a dozen or so such pianos. The only...

•The easiest way to determine the stringing scale is to measure each string with a micrometer, take careful notes and replicate the string diameters which were used originally. Many bass string makers have computer software for piano "scaling". Certain information such as string lengths, termination...

•Hervé Hubert from France asked in MMD 090318 about the meaning of some numbers he found in his tympanon and whether these numbers are related to the dimensions of the strings he has to use. I can not answer this question directly but if it would help Hervé to find out the correct dimensions, I sugg...

•A number of piano strings have given away on my Wertheim pianola. I called a number of our piano tuners in Singapore. They _all_ say, "Your piano very old. Cannot do." The do-it-yourself person is a dying breed in my country. I think I am one of the last of this kind, and I am 79 years old. If I co...

•Hello, I am attempting to get scale information for a barrel piano by E. Bona & A. Antoniazzi. The piano has 44 notes, starting in the bass with E, F, F#, G, G#, A, B, C, C#, [wound strings for bass] A, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F...

•Lots of opinions regarding bass wires. What I've experienced is that the more a piano owner pays for bass strings, the better they sound. Now, that not being close to correct, Mapes seems to have the attention of Steinway and Mason & Hamlin, the only two major piano builders left in the USA. Once i...

•[ Ref. Larry Kerecman in 170429 MMDigest ] Hi Gang, I decided to put my 2 cents in the hat over this topic. The idea of sound is completely personal. I have rebuilt players and pianos over the years and they have sounded awful, but to the customer it sounded wonderful. String making is a very speci...

•I have been reading with interest this thread on bass strings. I do know that European pianos tend to have completely different scaling than American ones, but all this talk about copper core wires is very puzzling. At least the pianos I work with have string tensions that a copper wire would not h...

•When I toured Mapes and watched bass strings being wrapped, part of the tour included a walk through of a fairly large room with what appeared to be longer than usual "yard" sticks hanging from it's ceiling. On each of these sticks was recorded all the dimensions needed to produce a set of bass wir...