Metric Wire sizes

[Horace Greeley]

Avery,

I got the same information from Mapes (although _not_ directly from Wayne,
who is now retired, I'm told) some time ago.

This wire thing only really  presents problems for people with ears.

That's _really_ glib; but for a purpose.

These, and similar, substitutions are made based ona given manufacturer's
assumption that no one will notice, and if they do, they'll pay extra for
the "right" stuff.

E.G., Recently on the list, someone mentioned getting some bad 16-16.5 wire
some time ago (I think it was Scott Thile).  Several makers had this
problem, but used the bad wire anyway, replacing it when technicians called
in for warranty support.  The difference was more than breakage. There
were, to my ear, anyway, substantive problems with voicing the various wire
types for an even scale.

There are other examples, but the point here is that, if one is really
interested in making a given instrument the best that it can (reasonably)
be, using appropriate wire types and sizes is one of the relatively easy
ways to work toward that goal.

There is really no substitute for "mic"ing each string/loop as it comes
off, just as a check.  In the context of restringing, the time involved to
do this is minimal.

Best.

Horace




Horace Greeley			hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu

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