Tuning stability

[Fred Sturm]

--On Monday, March 29, 2004 11:09 PM +0200 Isaac OLEG <oleg-i@noos.fr> 
wrote:

> Fred, I believe that if you warm the string rubbing them with a piece
> of wood , you'll get a very fast stabilisation, and you can avoid to
> bend them, bend can take place later I guess, is not it better?

Isaac,
	My experience tells me that I should make the positive bends in the wire 
soon after installing it for two reasons:
	First, this will stabilize pitch faster. My sense is that the process of 
the wire "making the bends itself" over time is a very large proportion of 
the cause for pitch drop of new wire. On new pianos from the factory, for 
instance, I find that heavy pounding can drop pitch by 50 cents or more. 
Not true of pianos I have restrung and made those positive bends. I 
interpret that to mean that the pounding is largely helping to create those 
bends.
	Second, the tone becomes much clearer, with a less "fuzzy" pitch. This 
difference is pretty readily apparent. Pull to pitch without making bends 
and listen. Make bends and pull to pitch, and listen.
	I do like to make sure pitch is as close to standard as possible when 
making the bends. Hence, 25 cents sharp before making the bends from bridge 
to hitch pin. Making the bends lowers pitch by 25 cents or a bit more. So I 
pull sharp again before making the front bends, which leaves the string 
close to pitch.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico