Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Re-stringing an 84yr old Grand.....?

The piano has excellent sustain, soundboard is in great shape, and has new hammers and action. Pinblock is original...treble strings are at least 40+ years old. If you were going to re-string it, what would you do for the best outcome, and what would you do that would not cost as much as the best outcome, yet still give good results? Thanks

I would run the scale through the spreadsheet, because that is cost-effective, and do good work, because anything else is a waste of money. Whether it needs a new pinblock or not depends on several things that would need to be determined.

Thanks for your reply BDB... What is the spreadsheet, is that a re-scaling? What can one expect sonically by running the scale through the spreadsheet?

What would necessitate changing out the pinblock? That is a big expense, and one I was hoping would not be necessary when re-stringing.

One tech I talked with says you should change out the block regardless, as the glue joints in an 84yr old pinblock may not stand up to the pounding in of the next size up pin. All the pins at this time are tight and the tunings hold really well.

What brand piano is it?

Steinways and Masons have quarter-sawn, laminated maple pin blocks and they are very durable if housed well. Older Chickerings and others had flat-sawn, laminate maple pin blocks-they don't hold up as well. Same goes for the old european grads except they had laminated beech.

A new pin-block well done does make the piano quicker to tune well and easier to get stable.

you could change the treble strings only, depends of the condition of the basses.

spreadsheet allow to see if you have a low tension piano or no.

makes a difference for the amelioration expected.

Ed, it's a 1930 Weber 5ft 2 Grand. Will that help in determining the pinblock construction?