Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum removing multiple strings at once for some repair

Hello,

I have an old hardman-peck minipiano (85 key). Besides needing a tuning in a bad way it needs some repairs (which is why I haven't tuned it yet). In particular, the bridge (is that what it's called? That's what it is called on a guitar) is slightly cracked and not making good contact to the soundboard. In case I have the name of the part wrong, if you follow the strings from the fixed end (not the tuning end) up a couple of inches, they rest on a piece of wood which in turn transfers the vibrations into the sound board. Since this piece has a crack, the lower 1/3 or so of the notes are too quiet and sound rather dead.

It looks like to affect any sort of repair on this I'll need to remove several (maybe 10-20) strings at once to get them out of the way. This is unless I get very creative with a needle and syringe full of glue and a large pile of very narrow clamps.

My question is if I should be concerned about removing that many strings at once. It seems like the change in total tension on the iron/steel frame (is frame the right name for that part of the piano?) would be quite large.

In terms of getting a pro to do the repair, it just isn't going to happen. I don't believe this piano is worth that much to anyone and it really isn't worth that much to me. But if I can spend a weekend and make a modest improvement I'll be happy.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-Dan

It probably will not be a problem, unless there is already a problem with the plate.

Bass strings are OK to remove without risk, Dan. As BDB cautioned, however, that's IF the plate is healthy. There is a possible way to fix this without removing strings though: If space allows, you can drill some small diameter holes through the bridge, going all the way through the back of the piano's soundboard. Using that glue syringe, inject the glue from the front side to get it to where it will run between the bridge and soundboard. After that, get some wood screws and large washers, and screw them into the hole you drilled from behind the piano. This should draw everything together, also creating a good clamp for your glue.

I hope I have explained this clearly. If not, please e-mail me or call me at 615-797-4308

Sam

As far as slacking off the string tension for the repair: mox nix (macht es Nichts). Before you inject the glue, do a "dry fit" and tighten up the screws to be sure everything is going to come together the way you hope it will.

Tom

BDB - thanks. Sam, good suggestion. I wasn't able to quite do what you suggested. If you were to lay the piano on its back so the soundboard is down and look down the length of the bridge what you'd see is a strip of wood attached to the soundboard. Then on top of that is a wider piece and on top of that is the bridge. The catch is the bridge is on the part of the wider piece which is not directly attached to the soundboard.

Anyway, I took off the bass strings and think I got it all repaired. Put the strings back on today and now I have the challenge of getting this thing in tune.

I started to do a really coarse tuning just trying to get the strings back to within at least a half step of where they go. Something isn't working right because I'd swear the lower octave's are too low (by a whole lot), but I don't have any gaps. Oh well, that will be a project for tomorrow.

Just for my understanding, why would it be ok to take off the bass strings but not the others? Is it because there are so many more strings in the upper end?

Thanks again.

-Dan

No reason. You can take off any of the strings, and there usually will not be a problem. The safest way is not to unbalance the stress on the plate too much.

Well, I wish I could remember the "why", but it has been so many years......it was at a PTG meeting that this came up, and the consensus was that is it safe to take off bass strings and leave treble strings on, but not vice-versa. I will try to search my memory or bring it up to one of my tech friends and let you know.

Sam