Iron vs Copper. -Reply

[Dave Sanderson]

Vince
Thanks for that very interesting and historic piece of information.
If what Mr. E. Johnson says is true though, that salesman must
have been a doozy, wouldn't you say?

>"The value of copper bass strings is only
>salesman's talk.  He is the one who went outside
>and popularized it.  Later, when you offered your
>piano with iron strings, he told you everybody was
>using copper strings.

I have in fact seen these old uprights with bass strings, some
copper and some iron, and did sense that they'd come from
the factory like that.  It really puzzled me. Your post has really
helped make sense out of that very confusing situation.
Thanks.


In reference to my original statement that copper was ALWAYS
preferred but not always available I have also noted Jim
Coleman's Baldwin exception.  Since iron is not available
(to my knowledge) now for string winding it is difficult for me
to personally talk to this issue of differences in sound quality.
I do however have a quote from another scholar from the
same time period as Mr. Johnson.  Also written in 1916, Dr.
Samuel Wolfenden states in his "A Treatise on the Art of Piano
Forte Construction"

"In this century the use of copper for covering is the rule.
American experts contend that a better quality of tone
results from iron covering.  They admit, however, for
 a climate such as ours the use of iron is indivisible.
Although coated with tin as a protection, it easily rusts,
and when this occurs the tone becomes exceedingly dull.
During the great war (Jim Coleman help me on what war
this would be) when military authorities required the bulk
of copper for munition purposes, a good deal of American
iron covering wire was imported, but the results were not
satisfactory and as soon as copper became available
reversion was made to its use."  p. 215

Regarding the need for an alternative material to copper because
of size limitations, I would still feel that this need does not exist.
Perhaps it is not well known that string winding copper is available
in very many small sizes.  For example, I have .150mm copper in stock
(although I do hate winding with it.) Typically I wind from .200mm
and up (in .025mm increments).
Also it is now possible, with the current scaling formulas, to
compensate for any copper winding limitations/scaling deficiencies
by designing string to camouflage the defects.  We have proven this
in blind experiments time and time again.
David Sanderson
pianobiz@juno.com

On Mon, 07 Apr 1997 11:36:57 -0700 Vince Mrykalo
<mrykalov@BYUGATE.byu.edu> writes:
>In response to iron vs copper wrap, I offer this from
>"Proceedings of the Conference of Piano
>Technicians": (Remarks were made by
>string-maker E. Johnson from Schaaf Piano String
>Co. from Chicago in 1916):
>"If a dull tone is desired we find the copper wires
>act to better advantage than the iron."
>also:
>"We do not advocate an entire set of iron strings -
>the last ten strings should be copper.  This is due to
>the fact that the diameter of the core is so much
>less than the diameter of the covering wire.  On fine
>strings we have found where the same weight of
>hammers is used and on the same scale, the iron
>strings give better results.  I do not know just what
>the reason is."
>and: