Do strings break during tuning?
They can. This is much more likely to happen with pianos that are old or have not been tuned in a long time. However, strings can even break during normal playing. Strings can break just because the elasticity of the steel is gone. Piano wire is good for about 25 – 30 years. After that it is on its way downhill. It becomes elongated and loses its liveliness, elasticity, and becomes more prone to breaking. With exposure to high humidity levels over long periods, strings become rusted and corroded. At the junction where rusted strings wrap around pins, rust corrosion forms a hardened bond between the two. Then, during a tuning, when your piano technician turns the pins to stretch the strings, the inflexible, rusted string snaps at this joint.
