Stringing Scales

[A440A@aol.com]

A respondent posted earlier;

>  I routinely rescale the pianos that I restring, including (the smaller
model)
>Steinways, and can say from experience that once you get above the
problematic
>tenor area, wire size makes little difference to the tone - within reason,
of
>course. However, changing treble wire sizes *can* make a noticable
>difference in
>the inharmonicity - enough to change the way the piano tunes.


           Hmmmm......  we are  using several vague terms here, like "little
difference", "within reason" , and "noticable difference",  so I don't know
that any of us will be able to be definitive on these points.


      The use of one size wire per octave in stringing a piano tends to have
rather jarring changes of tension  where the sizes change.  From a tuning
standpoint,  the attainment of acceptable octaves and fifths required the
abandonment of  smoothly progressing tenths.

     The tonal changes between the wire sizes were audible  The treblemost
note of the larger wire was considerably tighter than the bassmost note of
the smaller size.

     Several of these odd scaled pianos were not done so long ago,  maybe 20
years.
The difference in new vs. old wire doesn't account for the improvement in
tone, tunability, or percieved power, and the customers, everyone of them,
have noticed a big difference in the sound, usually stating that the pianos
sound much more harmonious, solid, and "in-tune". (these are all equally
tempered pianos BTW).

     Once again,  I think scales are important to the sound of an instrument,
stringing a piano with only 6 sizes of wire is going to leave a lot of room
for  improvement.

        Also,  the question of bass strings was not addressed.  I was
discussing the plain wire only.

Regards,
Ed Foote