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Was broken wound string . Not having available, it was decided to install it's. Max was forced to turn it upside down. The result is a 1.5 string coils, where used to be a loop. What think technicians about this ? http://youtu.be/hcmIspYINx8

Greetings,
I think there is a lot better way to fix this. 1/2" is sufficient to make a string splice with.

To start, assuming a sufficient length of the tail section will allow a coil, splice a piece of wire on the broken string so that the splice is behind the bridge. Then, wrap the splice around the proper pin and make the loop while the winding is approx. 1/4" (4mm), too close to the bridge. Remove from pin and form loop as tightly as possible. This allows stretching to bring the wrap closer to its original place. In the video, it appears that the winding is hitting the termination,which will render the string no more than a rattle in short order. Also, get the hitch on the right pin,

If the string broke at the agraffe, it can still be spliced, turned around, and installed, but you have to make a tight, non-stretching splice for that to work.
Regards,

It is also essential that the string be seated against the plate at the hitchpins. If it rides higher, it has more leversge on the hitchpin which may eventually bend, break or flip around and face the wrong way, depending on the construction of the plate.

Yes, of course you're right, rxd. The loop is located on the neighboring one. It really will be negative in the future, but only at the level of theory, I think so.
And negative moment in Max's creating is a double power on the the hitchpins

It's all theory, Max, until you have to fix one.

You seem to be a lucky guy, it might just hold out.

It's not to late to splice it, as Ed suggested. Learn a new skill.

Trust in Allah, but tie your camel to a tree.

I have no doubt that it will work for many years. Simply must be so. What concerns the suggestion of a slice it safely. But ... I had such a practice. It works effectively, but had imply a change in tone it's string.
There is no hope in God and a Devil. There is not even an extra rope for a camel. All that was done and must work for the ages

Max, you have double tension on that hitch pin, and the top string is pulling on the pin with greater leverage than it should have due to being further from the plate. In total, you might be stressing that pin maybe 2.5x more than usual. You better hope that hitch pins are made at least 3x stronger than they need to be, or you might be in for some trouble!

Hi,ando
I understand the object of your concern a hitch pin about. I fully agree with your tech. calculations of the 3 stronger on this pin. However, I have a huge long-standing practice of such a procedure has never had a broken hitch pin. I know that the Soviet piano's plates made with great hardness additional resource . A steel in the USSR was cooked on the conscience! Therefore, I can assure you that it is safe.
regards,Max

I guess you have answered the question then - the hitchpins really are at least 3x stronger than they need to be!

It is so, ando. I no doubt that a reliability and durability of all other hitch pins, other countries nor the Soviet production. So if we can, then we can do experiments with them. Hope I'm right. Hope Max's tricks with inverted upside down string yet become a reality, providing full technical operation for years to come.
Why can not it happen in Australia?

Some of those pianos are built like tanks. However, I heve only had to repair one broken hitchpin on a grand piano where I wouldn't have expected it to happen. The string was still attached at the tuning pin end and I don't know how or why it happened. A simple repair with the right tools but a potential bullet if anyone is playing the piano when it breaks. Safe enough on an upright, I suppose.

I have, however seen replacement strings not seated at the hitchpin where they have bent the hitch pin through exerting their pull from too high up.

Sorry your first splicing was disappointing but as the splice tightens with tension, the string tends to twist. If it twists in the wrong direction, the result can be poor tone quality. I have from time to time had to release the tension on a splice in order to twist the string more in the direction of the winding, I always twist them half turn but the tightening can negate that and I don't want to twist more than necessary.

Those splices are strong. I always splice to prevent further wear or damage while waiting for the replacement but I have some that have lasted nearly twenty years and one over forty years from before my thirty year sojourn in America. I have the replacement strings for them and I will replace the string when the splice finally gives out. I'm still waiting. Maybe I'll give out first.

I must admit to having a splice in the speaking length of one practice piano string and I defy other tuners to find it by sound alone. They never can. I must admit to tone regulating it to deliberately mislead but my point is, while it may not be the best sounding string on the piano, it s certainly not the worst of a generally good sounding set of bass strings. I have the strings to replace it but it is more fun to leave it. It matches its mate as good as any other pair, I had to remove half an inch of winding to accomplish the splice close to the agraffe.

I'm concerned that the general readership here understands that your repair may not be a good idea for any old piano and certainly not for a grand piano where it could potentially be lethal.

Indeed my episodic practice can not claim to truth in the first instance. That do you manage to "make" good sound from slices string it confirms yours professionalism. I do not impose a similar method, but it is. Let the laity thinks to make their own choice, I think so

Sorry, Max. It is not my choice, it is not your choice, it is our responsibility to our customers.

First do no harm. Implicit in this is also do no potential harm. If an improvised temporary repair must be made, let it be one that is easily corrected at a later date by yourself or another. What is so terribly wrong with basing everything on best practice as a starting point. There aren't any different levels of this. Yes, sometimes an improvised repair can last for decades let it be based on sound principles.

Being a big fish in a small pond has its temptations. How would it be if there were a better qualified tech in your area who would expose such dangerous practices? One could easily appear tomorrow to point out this kind of work that has been going on In spite of better practices being suggested on this forum.

Best practices are usually much easier and efficient but we have to master them first and not give them up too easily and certainly not advise highly questionable repairs on a public forum.

First do no harm.

I share yours views the do "no harm" about . However, having neither the means nor the equipment nor the new strings and so on., Max stranded on a slippery slope risky operations. A change for the better in the near future is expected. Therefore, Max is forced to have a reasonable risk
http://youtu.be/PJZM2NjPUgA

Max, you asked what technicians thought of your repair. If you only wanted to hear from people who thought you were brilliant or ingenious, you should have said so, and then people could decide whether their time was usefully spent responding to you.

Greeting,s
All it takes is a pair of pliers and a piece of music wire to splice this properly. I still don't understand why the original hitch pin was not used.

As I see it, the wire was hitched on the next hitch-pin, because this would save about 5 mm from the original length - exactly those 5 mm that were needed to avoid a splice.

To Max: I am not condoning your method; I am only trying to explain it to Ed Foote.

Well, Max did explain, if I understood him properly that he has spliced at least one string but was dissatisfied with the tonal result and I replied about the string twisting as the splice is tensioned, sometimes against the direction of twist in the copper winding. It's all not too far back in this thread.

There could be a short splice at the hitch end non-speaking length, if there is some string available, to extend enough to be able to hitch to the original hitch pin.

It's not that complicated. Watch the video closely. . Look at the terrible mess at the tuning pin end. The hitch pin end of the string is undamaged and can be used normally. Putting a splice at the tuning pin end. Just like a normal splice of the winding at the tuning end has not been damaged too much by Max's patent fix.

UK has mixed feelings about splices. I did an emergency splice some forty years ago on the terrible old upright in the penthouse of a very famous thespian of the era for a party that evening. I was called to that same piano more recently and that "temporary" splice was still holding. I got everything from mild teasing to downright censure from the ultra conservative piano fraternity of the time. The tuner who broke it earlier had been at a complete loss what to do when a new string would take a day or so to procure. He was the worst in the self righteous department in spite of, or maybe because of my pulling him out of a hole. I had bought a collection of used American books on pianos. That was where I learned it. My emergency fix garnered the company I worked for a lot of connections in the thespian community.

I should point out that there are no thespians in my family but we do have an uncle we're not too sure about.

I once showed a famous older concert tuner how to splice after he had not detected an almost invisible splice of mine on an old upright. He told me he wished he had known how to do that years ago.

Pianos used in important concerts here are almost new but there are still some pianos we have to deal with that emergency repair skills are a must. The criterion is always; can this repair be easily re-done properly later when time is not a factor? Splicing comes under that heading. If new wire is not available part of the old coil can be used. If done discretely, only a half turn of the three turns is lost. I could make an argument that using the old wire is advisable because we already know that both ends have the same breaking point.

A solid background in the hows and whys of pianos is, of course, essential. Much of that information has been made available here over the years. An intelligent and avid reader of fhis forum has no excuse.

I didn't realise how strongly I felt about my profession and it's legacy. I'm no saint myself, nor am I any kind if saviour.

That is why I speak out vociferously but, I hope, kindly but still get my point across, against malpractice. Particularly when it is unnecessary. we need to remember we are playing with potentially dangerous tension here.