Music Trade Review

THE
14
OUR TECHNKAL DEPARTMENT
(C ont1:nued from page 13)
Having in this manner rid oneself of the o ld
strings it is welJ to take advantage of the state
of affairs thus disclos ed to clean off as much
oi the soundboard as can be reached, to tighte n
the bridge and examine its pin s, to clean rust
off such parts of the treble strings as may be­
fo r e ha ve been a lit of reac h an d to do every­
t hin g of the kind which can be donc oilly in th e
present circ ull1 stanr~s. In old pianos it may
occas ional ly occur that exa minati on of the
bridge s w il l re \'ea l los,; of downbear in g, or even
radical ddect s in th e ba ss bridge. This ar ticl e,
however, is concerned \vith putting on ba ss
,t rin g.' o nl y and 50 1 will not discu ss 50 und­
board repairs in the present paragraphs. Bu t if
defects of the kind are disclosed they sho uld be
dealt with before proceeding further.
Handling New Set
In h andling the str in gs which ;-Ire to be pul
in place it is well to arrang~ eve ryt hing 50 that
there ca n be no tr o ubl e in picki ng out the new
ones in proper order. Sets of bass st rin gs come
from the makers done up on a round coil which,
w h en stra ir- ht e ned o ut by c uttin g th e bi ndin g
twine and taking off the paper wrappe rs, s ho ws
itself to be composed of the thirty-six to forty
w ires a ll s trun g in order by th e ir hitch-pin
loop s upon a s tout piece of so ft wire. whic h is
looped a round an(1 fa s tened securely agains t ac­
cidentally coming apart The first thing is to
undo thi s soft wire ca refully and then make a
hook c,~ cae h eml of Jt. Taking the upp er bass
end, let the hook be bent so that there is no
chance of th e s trin gs making their way out
a rollnd it and all , 0 the Roor. Thcn t;)kc th e
other e nel and hang up the hook just made to
some co nve ni e nt 11ail or bracket in th e wall ncar
the pi a no . ,\Jl is HO" read y fo r st rin g in g.
In th e bctory a profess ional stringcr, \\ hell
he is ready to put on his bass strings, pro­
cee d s so m ew ha t differe ntly. He takes hi s set of
\\ :reS and places each one on its hit ch pin and
over it s bridge pin;;. Then he h\'i 'i l ~ tltc other
end around to th e side of hi s piano a nd lets it
hang down, so that he can pick up cac h wir'e
in turn anu rapidly dcal with it. To do this,
I' owever, in vo lves the services of a helper and
the tuner o r tec hni cian w ho is do in g this so rt
of work in his work~hop or in th e home of a
CUStOlllU, as I have o ften done it, will usually
have to work a ll a lone . Even when he can ge t
help it is usually better not to take advanta ';e vf
its pre se n ce, since it is very likely to be in­
co mp e te n l. The mn hod described i< 1110 s t 11 se·
ful w h e n one is working alone.
Strin ging
Now, take the fi[~t s trin g of the set (t he high­
cst ba ss s trin g) as it han gs free on the soft
wire which you have 1: 1111 1: up by il ;; ot her end.
~lide it orr th e hook (ha vin g seen that your
lin gc rs are lay it on the hitcll pin and across the briuge
p in s. Th0n bri ng the other en d carefully und e r
th e damp e r (damper rods arc a lways to the left
of the uni so n as you face th e ke y board) and
throu g h the ag raffe (J all! sp eakin g now, of
co ur se , of a grand piano). If th e piano is an
upri g ht th e sa m e procedure is ca r ried out, but
there is probably a V-bearing in stead of an
agraffe. Somc g rands have a capo d'astro bar
in the bass sect ion, in w hi ch case it is usua l to
provide it s und ersi de w ith pins s uch as are
found on the V bea ring in uprights . When the
wire is drawn throu g h to til e pin J11 ea~Ure on the
wire past the pin as 111any fin ge r's br e yo u wish to have coils around the pin, then cut
off with th e rutting pliers. Push th e e nd of the
wire thr ough th e ey('-il o le till it proj ec ts very
s li g htly beyond the other end and with the
T -hamm er turn the· pin !:ent ly downwards till
th e coi l is wound round the pin and the s la ck
i' out of the st rin g. But do not tight('n lhe
str in g to tonc-producing ten sion. Th ~n take th e
s tring lif ter, place it und er t he newly mad e
rou g h coil, turn the pin back with the T-halll­
mer till the coil is loose enough to be manipu­
lated and, with the string lij tcr, pu s h the coi ls
l\1USIC
TRADE
REVIEW
together by restin g the tool on the p late and
pushing up wards w it h it o n the co il s. "'''hen
this has been done satisfactori ly tu rn the pin
downwards again. Take the heavy h amme r and
the tuning-pin punch and strike a couple of mod­
eratc blows, till the pin has s unk into place.
Test the coil again and go on to the next string.
Caution!
Som e words of ca ution are, however, neces·
sar)'. III the fir,;t p lace , remember that fin ge rs
iiersp ire dnd that perspiration is bad for strings
and pin s. Act according ly. In the second place,
the wir e will bc found pretty st iff and to make
it coil is by no means easy.
It is best to take
o ne's fin gc r ( left han d), protected if needs he
by a b;t of CO hard on the wir e bet wee n agraffe and p in, so as
10 for ce it to run fair ly stra ig ht into a coil.
Otherwi s c ther e will be crooke d and twi s ted
co ils, lN hi ch look ex tremely amateuris h and
c lu m sy, besides being dan ge rous to stab ility of
tun e. In the third place, th e s tr ing lifter mu s t
be us e(l wit h the utmo st care. One must not
twist the pin hack a nd forth, for, if this is don e,
the pin w ill be loo se ned and trouble w ill r e­
sult when th e strin gs are pulled into tune. In a
tight cor ner a fine screw-driver or the point 01
" n awl may often be lI sed as a string lifter.
\"'h en a ll th e st ringslir-e o n th ey must be
exaillined again (1) for stra ightn ess of coils,
(2) to see wbether wire is sn ugly in eye-holes
in evcry case, (3) for h eig ht of pins. Each point
is to be taken li p in turn and corrected where
n ecessa r y with the appropriate tool s.
1£ a pin is found, during tuning, 10 i)c hop e­
Ies< Jy loose it must be carefu lly turn ed out, tilt·
wire unwound fro111 a round it and a piece of
ve nee r put into the h ole, or else a b it of sand­
paper w itiJ th e coa tcd s ide o ut wards.
Tuning
Tunin g is si111Jl le. First take th e luning ham­
mer w ith the sq uare head, rough ly r aise th e
highest stri ng to pitch by its octave and ve ry
<[1li ck ly and roughly pull up all the others in
th e same way Conve ni e nce i" gained by rai s­
ing th e damp ers and u~ing the finger or a stick
of wood to "chip" the strings,
.\UG1·ST II, 1923
As soo n as tbis is d o ne go over the strings
'1;':'"il1, this tilil e ~ t r ikill g with the hammers, in
th c usua l way, and tllne with some attempt
at carc. Then lcave th e s tring~ overn ig ht.
Tun e again th e n ex t morning sti ll mo re care­
fully an d again leave for a day. Repeat the
operation thr ee times in s uccession a nd then
r0111e back again to it in one week and m ake
it pe rf ec t.
CORRESPONDENCE
Comm uni ca ti ons for this department arc lll­
vited. Th ey sho uld bc addressed to \"'illia1l1
Braid \ "'hite, care The Mu s ic Trade Revi ew,
J8J Madison avenue, New York, N. Y.
VANONV APPOINTED SALES MANAGER
The s taff of th e Newark retail bran ch of J acob
Doll & Son" ha ~ ju s t bee n in c rea sed by th e
addition of Frederick 1.. \1anony as sales man­
agcr. M r. VanOl1 y has had a wide experience
in th e p iano busil1ess, ha ving been at one tim e
secr eta ry and tr eas urer of the Bacon Piano Co.
Unt il quite r ece ntl y h e was with Lauter .
A Complete Line of High Grade
Commercial Instruments
'WQM
~~
an d
U)~~
Pianos and Player Pianos
Write f o r our dealer proPo!Jition
THE WEYDIG PIANO CORP.
Wm . E . Weydig, Pre,ldenl
133rd St_ and Brown Place
New York
,­
Tuners and Repairers
We have just issued a little 20
page price list of
PIANO MATERIALS AND TOOLS
and will send a copy upon request.
It is in convenient form and of in­
terest to every Tuner and Repairer.
Simply ask for Circular No. 244
HAMMACHER, SCHLEMMER & CO.
PIANO AND PLAYER HARDWARE, FELTS AND TOOLS
NEW YORK SINCE 1848
4th Avenue and 13th Street
.J