A knot in a bass core is relatively simple.  I forget the name of the
knot but I could make one and take a picture of it.  A clean, well-
executed knot is the sign of a craftsman,

With bass strings you need to use a wire gage larger than the core.
Also when cutting the length for coiling on the pin, cut 3 fingers'
width (little finger withdrawn).  A coil can be made on a dummy pin
so the pin in the piano only needs to be slackened 1.5 turns.  A dummy
pin can be made by cutting off a tuning pin 6 mm below the hole.
Another cut is made from the bottom to the hole.

This way the coil be slipped right off and needle-nosed pliers can
hold the becket and open the coil a bit and install it onto the pin
in the piano.  1.5 turns and it is back to pitch.  For a regular wire
replacement only 3/4 turn is required.  Tying a knot in the speaking
length near the agraffe takes 5 to 10 minutes and it sounds as good as
its neighbor usually.

Splicing has two 'benefits'.  The rest or the wire matches in color/
age/sound.  There is only a short section of wire stretching, so
follow-up tuning is diminished.

On my post the other day: In general I don't like the partials from
Mapes' bass strings, that's just my opinion.  (I'll reserve my opinion
on the Bose's I've encountered).  Cosmetically I don't like the long
distance between the agraffe and the winding, there are some who claim
this is one cause for bad partials.  That was the reason for combining
them in the same sentence.

A typo occurred when the word 'back' was used [000110 MMD].  It should
have been 'block'.  Replacing the back on an upright surely would
constitute 'rebuilding', it is rarely necessary, but for rebuilding,
'pin block' was to which I was referring.

Regards,

Jon Page,   piano technician
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.