I’ve never done this, so I’m wondering if I should remove the pin from
its hole or simply “unwind” it for the number of turns I’ll need to put
back on it with the new string.
Thanks.
One of the good, important, and fundamental questions!
Either way is ok. If you “unwind” it, that is exactly the right way to go about it. (One of my pet peeves is when someone takes off the string fragment without unwinding, then puts a new string on the pin driving it deeper and deeper in the hole until it cannot go any further and stressing the string much more than necessary.) However, I find it very hard to get a neat winding doing it this way.
I much prefer taking the pin out completely, putting on the new string, shimming the hole if necessary with a thin strip of rag paper like the edge of a dollar bill (or a $20 if your harpsichord is very expensive! 
) just smaller than the diameter of the hole, and hammering the pin in to be level with the others around it.
Good luck!
1 Like
I just wrote a reply when I realised that Dongsok wrote almost exactly the same words!
In my long experience doing it either way, I found the “unwind” way very difficult.
As Dongsok does, I also normally take the pin out completely.
In my Hubbard maple wrestplank hammering down the pin indeed “eats on the wood”: not so much as to need a shim, but enough to mark the pin top so that in future tuning one is reminded that this pin is a bit loose and requires careful handling with the tuning hammer.
Remove the pin. It’s much easier to wind I find and you can get it neat and tensioned correctly. Hammering it back in should not damage the pin - don’t use a huge hammer. If shimming is needed, and it shouldn’t be normally with a simple pin removal, we use a 3-4mm wide strip of fine grit wet and dry sandpaper, which gives some grip and its about the right thickness. We don’t have US dollar bills over here in Australia (and our notes are all high tech plastic now!). Make sure you have enough windings - compare with surrounding pins - so that you get the same downdraft angle. That’s very important.
Fortepiano maker Paul Poletti used to have a good description on his website regarding the method of changing strings without removing a modern-style zither pin.
The site is gone now (I assume he retired) but visible on the Internet Archive. The main takeways are to (1) pre-form the coil on a spare tuning pin of similar size to those on the instrument; and (2) allow for some stretching of the new wire by backing the pin out a couple of extra turns.
Link to his method (text only; photos no longer available):
Use a good small hammer of appropriate weight like one of these for hammering in tuning pins. Don’t use a tradesman’s building hammer.
Le 19/03/2024 13:42, Andrew Bernard via The Jackrail écrit :
Hammering it back in should not damage the pin - don’t use a huge hammer.
I’m worried about damaging the hole, not the pin! Thanks to all for the
advice.
I use a piece of wood, a few mm thick, between the hammer and the wrestpin.
You’ll be right. Don’t worry. The pin follows the path of least resistance, which is the drilled hole. It’s not going to ovalise it and you’d have to try really hard to cause damage.
Dear All
With the high holding torque required on a modern piano tuning pin, piano technology demands string replacement without removal of the pin. We don’t have that problem with the much lower string tension on a harpsichord.
In fact, the only way to ensure neat windings is to extract the pin by unwinding it, then hammer it back in when done.
Here is my replacement of two strings on a Hubbard French Double in Puerto Rico some years ago—I’ve already unwound the pins and they’re sitting loosely in their holes:
CBH Winding a zither tuning pin
Always read the technical description!
Regards
Carey
1 Like
Thanks, Carey!
This is a useful video which also shows the ZHI tuning key doubling as a hammer (on the 4ft string). It is just the right weight for this job (though it will not fit the square-headed pins here).
David
Hence why the tool is often called a tuning hammer.
But not usually heavy enough for zither pins.
I would also make the comment in agreement with @hpschdNU that the harpsichord is quite different to the piano and techniques of changing strings on a piano do not really apply.
Thank, you Carey! Very helpful, as usual.
Whether the tuning pins are zither pins or “original” pins doesn’t matter. What’s very important is if the tuning is pin threaded (e.g. like a screw) or not. If yes: do NOT hammer it in. You’ll only make the hole wider, and the tuning pin might not even hold any more! To heck with good looking string windings: I prefer my tuning pins to hold as they should.
In case of threaded pins, yes: it’s a nuisance. Try to count how many turns you undid the tuning pin, attach the new string to the tuning pin and rewind it. Remember how much extra string you used to wind around the pin.
With some luck you’ll manage to make some nice tuning pins. If not: make sure there is a slight slope from the tuning pin to the nut. Don’t bother about the aesthetics.
The story is different if the tuning pin is not threaded. These are my favorites when I have to redo a whole instrument. You can wind the string beautifully around the pin and the hammer it in as many times as you want without damaging the hole.
Dear All
For those completely restringing an instrument, I’ve now had my first batch made of mild steel tapered tuning pins, ø5mm x 55mm, intended as an improved solution to directly substitute for the standard zither pins.
Picture shows my ø4mm pins:
Regards
Carey
1 Like
Le 21/03/2024 21:10, Chris Vandekerkhove via The Jackrail écrit :
Whether the tuning pins are zither pins or “original” pins doesn’t matter. What’s very important is if the tuning is pin threaded (e.g. like a screw) or not. If yes: do NOT hammer it in. You’ll only make the hole wider, and the tuning pin might not even hold any more! To heck with good looking string windings: I prefer my tuning pins to hold as they should.
I was assuming all zither pins were threaded. Which is why I raised the
question of removing the pin or not, and why I was worried about
enlarging the hole while hammering it back in. So, are there unthreaded
zither pins? I’ve never seen any, and I notice that Vogel doesn’t sell
any. Carey’s pins look like they’re threaded, from what I can see. And
in this Zuckermann video the pins are obviously threaded and hammered in:
Dear Dennis
All zither pins are threaded. If you hammer them in straight, there is minimum likelihood of enlargement of the wrestplank hole. That really only becomes an issue with repeated replacement of the upper brass strings at the tenor crossover, and I easily remedy that by a inserting a slip of 80gsm paper prior to hammering the pin in. Tear the excess paper off prior to the final hit, and the thread on the zither pin will drag the paper below the level of the wrestplank to where it will be invisible.
It’s pretty extraordinary if you need to use abrasive paper to shim the hole as @andro mentioned. If you must, the rough side goes to the wood, not the pin!
My new pins are smooth, not threaded.
Regards
Carey
Thanks again, Carey. Much appreciated.