Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Tuning Pins - Blued or Nickel

I was curious as to your preferences on tuning pin types. For a vintage instrument, 1917 M&H A, the Diamond blued look beautiful but do they hold up as well as the nickel plated pins? My concern is more with mechanical abrasions from driving and tuning. I would like to keep the piano period correct but also want things to stay looking nice. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I love the look of blued pins, so that has been my choice, for purely aesthetic reasons.

The pins are the same quality; one has blue gun metal colouring on it, which is the only difference. I find the blued do not get as marked as the nickel. Also if the blued get marked, you can purchase the colour to touch them up. The nickel ones would have to be re-dipped…that would present a problem.

Too bad they don’t use chrome, it is the tougher product.

www.silverwoodpianos.com

I've always liked the blued pins too. I have also noticed over the years, that the blued ones seem to consistently tune better than the other ones do. And, they seem to have less problems with loose tuning pins as the years pass. Anyone else notice this?

Never really though much about it. I've never noticed a difference in the tuning of blue versus nickel. Most of the utility pianos I tune have the blue, and when I think of nickel my mind goes to imports, i.e. Chinese, Korean, Japan.

Ditto on the blued pin choice.
Just installed a set of blued Julius Klinke German pins. Took the time so sort by size and found they only varied in diameter by about .001" and they were not out of round - two things that will add to tuning feel consistency -that is if the block is drilled consistent.
Also they look beautiful.

In order to answer this question you have to test two identical pianos with different set of pins for several decades to find out which one holds better. As you understand, it's impossible.

More importantly, is to also consider the quality of the pinblock, the drilling diameter, the angle of tilting and craftsmanship. There are different brands of pins on the market. I consider the ones that Yamaha use on their pianos, the best pins.

Thank you all for your replies!

I think it's mostly a cosmetic decision.

About ten years ago I had one customer who reacted negatively when I returned a piano with nickel pins. She thought that it looked "gawdy". I had also buffed up all of the screw heads too, so the whole look was kind of shiny. So, I went out with plate touchup paint and covered all the screw tops with the bronzing powder mix. She was happy then.

Some sets of nickel plated pins have cut threads which are blued. Denro pins are like this. So it's not always an either-or choice in this regard. Personally I think that any difference in how they wear would have more to do with the quality of the block and how it was drilled than with the pin.

I do like Gene does, and sort the pins. They do vary. The larger ones go in the bass, and the smaller in the treble. I've been using the Diamond pins which are made by Klinke. They are nice and consistent in this regard.

What I have read about blued and nickel plated tuning pins is
1. The blued pins have a better thread and hold "better".
2. The nickel plated pins should be used for coastal pianos or for pianos in high humidity zones.
Mark Davis

Blued pins seem to rust quicker than Nickel in humid areas.

One aspect of the tuning pin that is often misunderstood is the threaded area. These are mostly cut with automated machinery that use threading dies with multiple teeth on a single tool as opposed the single point tools used in lathes. The cutting takes place while the part is heavily lubricated, usually with Pennex or some other black oil.

Since the "thread" is not really a standard thread such as American or Whitworth, it is shallower, does not have the respective 60 deg profile and does not follow any standard pitch diameter or even tpi number standard; thus they can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Years ago I looked at several different brands of tuning pins using a high powered optical comparator (shadowgraph) and discovered that the "thread' area is not very smooth (at 100X magnification). They actually look like they are torn into the metal and the surface has micro fissures and stress cracks that are commonly associated with high pressure, large surface area contact of the machine tool.

I always wondered why removing and inserting a tuning pin into the pin block loosened them so much until I figured that these rather rough threads act like a file and take a bit of wood with them every time...evidenced by the fine wood dust you find on them.

Generally the shops do test runs to determine how long they can run a tool before resharpening is needed, so quite often, certain lots of pins will be rougher than others if they were made near the end of a run. A Tech I know in Europe showed me some tuning pins years ago that had the threads formed by rolling, rather than cutting, and they had a much smoother feel to them. I believe it was a German made from the 1960's.

Rolled threads are more costly to manufacture according to my BIL that manages a Header shop

the metal quality is important, I prefer blue Klinke tuning pins that are the same price as japanese nickel plated ones, because the japanes have a softer metal and I like the pin to be a stiff spring. (softer metal + less good threads)

On the good quality plated pins I did not notice any problem. Visual reasons, mostly (and on some bands they wher plated from the start so better put the samething)

Not only is sorting good, a solvent wash to remove traces of oil before stringing is not a bad thing.

Nickel plated pins sound better.

Jurgen, please explain

Hello Jurgen

Any testing done ?

what reason would be used as an hypothesis ?

If it is humor, I like it !

But I also accept the fact that the pin is an (important) part of the resonant body.

Kamin, he's pulling your leg.

Why don't I feel nothing ?

I'd like to compare the tone of a stiffer tuning pin with the tone of a smoother one, anyway !!!


You ever try to compare the tone of a well settled string/pin with the one of a string where the pin is just neutral ?