Bad tine or normal for era of manufacture?

[eddie_bowers]

With the 1972 piano I picked up it had a package of spare tines stored in the lid. They are slightly different than what is in the piano in that the taper is shorter.

I had one tine that had the spring way out on the tip to get it in tune, so I thought I would try cutting one of the spares.
It functions, but it almost mutes when struck hard. The other tines sound awesome when struck hard. It almost sounded like a double strike. I put the original tine back in and found a heavier spring that kept it in tune without being on the very end. It sounds great.

So is that a bad tine, or can some of the later tines not handle as much dynamics? I'm just curious in case I pick up another piano with later tines.

[eddie_bowers]

I had another tine that was a little on the short side, so clipped the "bad tine" some more and tried it in that higher slot. It worked perfectly there. Oh well.

[Student Rhodes]

I suspect you may have started out with a tine that was already clipped shorter than what may have been on that tone bar.  Perhaps a previous owner broke a tine and replaced it with shorter tine from nearby or their stash.   When the tine is too short, and thereby sharper than needed, placing a heavier spring, or multiple small springs was a simple way to slow that tine down and lower its pitch.   Probably changes the timbre as well, but that can be addressed through voicing.

Your spare tines, with the different taper, are most likely from a later era.  Just because the piano is a '72 (a GREAT year btw) doesn't mean your spares would be.  In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen one of those tine replacement sets from Fender on ebay that wasn't from 76-78 or beyond.    Maybe that's because all the early ones had more years to get used up... I dunno.   I know the whole point of the later tines and how they were swaged was supposed to make them last longer.  Maybe that's why there's so many of those kits still around.  Perhaps all the wouldbe early Torrington replacement sets have been used up, as by Fenders accounting, they were much more prone to snapping.
Ray

[eddie_bowers]

Thanks! Yeah that's what I was guessing. This piano has been around the block for sure. I did find a couple of broken tine ends floating around under the keys. The harp has a bunch of grimy fingeprints as well. Hopefully I can clean them up with some very fine grit sand paper  (unless someone has a better approach).

[Student Rhodes]

You may not want to use sand paper.  Depending on the era of piano, you may do damage to any protective finish/plating (zinc?) that's on there. 
Perhaps there's a metal polish/cleaner that can do the trick?