String Bending Tool

The purpose of this tool is to help define the bends of the piano wire at the bridge pins on new pianos or new strings. Piano wire, being a spring wire, is resilient and resists bending. When wires are strung across the bridge, they are forced to run at an angle between the offset bridge pins. Where they leave the bridge they do not run in a straight line between the bridge pin and the front termination (and the hitch pin) like a piece of string might. Instead, because of their resistance to bending, they exit the bridge and run in a curved line toward the front termination (or hitch pin). Even at full pitch the tension on the wire does not pull the wire entirely straight because of the wire’s resistance to being bent at the bridge pin. It takes a very long time (years) for the wire to slowly and eventually conform to the forces upon it and yield at the bridge pin. This leads to long term pitch instability and also tonal deficiency. We like to tell clients that on new or newly-strung p