"80 year old wire"

[Horace Greeley]

Stephen,

At 06:56 PM 12/11/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hammer coverings yes. Wire no. All that wire does is corrode and that can 
>be cleaned off (excluding covered strings which is a different kettle of 
>fish). I've seen 1820 pianos with their original wire that are superb. In 
>fact pre-1850 (or so) wire is so much different from modern wire that it 
>is criminal to replace it. 

I absolutely agree, particularly as to wire.  Wire prior to at least
the turn of the century was of noticably different composition.  These
differences are clearly audible on instruments with lower tension 
scales.  This has many ramifications for the tuning threads here 
recently as well.

For real musical purposes, the last decent treble wire I had
was from Giese.  I got it from the estate of an older technician
in LA, and, by the time I ran through his stock, it was no longer
available - well, at least, I haven't found it anywhere.  As nice
as it is in many ways, the polished Roslau wire is only a faint
imitation.

Best.


Horace


Horace Greeley

Systems Analyst/Engineer
Controller's Office
Stanford University

email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 650.725.9062
fax: 650.725.8014