strings and things

[Horace Greeley]

Don, Joel & List,

Thinking about Joel's note (snipped below), it occurs to me that this is
another chapter of an earlier thread.

In that iteration, there was concern about tone and tension (and you
thought this was going to be a new topic).

My experience is a little different than Joel's.  Over the years, I have
tried different strings from a variety of makers.  What Joel describes is
_exactly_ what is _supposed_ to happen.  Unfortunately, the folks who make
strings and design scales change things without saying much about it.  Part
of the result is that the strings you order today (from some sources)
simply are not equivalent to what you would have gotten in year "X".

Don, what I think you are describing is a string which may have been built
in such a way that, even though you have placed it in what should be the
appropriate place in the scale, it simply reaches/exceeds its limit of
elasticity, and goes dead.  No amount of twisting/untwisting will restore
the elasticity once this happens.  After all, we do (most of us, anyway)
throw away certain kinds of clothing when the elastic bands wear out...

Further, Joel's remark about "all other things being equal" is important to
bear in mind as it helps to keep our attention centered on the piano as a
dynamic structure.  That is, it is in a constant state of flux, and changes
in one area will affect/create changes in others.  In this case, and
keeping the discussion limited to unwrapped strings for the moment, the
thicker wire  (which requires higher tension) will produce different
balance among the partials than the smaller wire.  It will also require a
harder hammer, and, perhaps, a slightly different strike point in order to
generate the same _perception_ of volume/power.  (More on that in another
post, perhaps - I am intrigued by the recent mention of Young's Modulus.)

Joel wrote:

>I have never experienced the dulling of the bass string sound that you
>describe as it is brought up to pitch.  Usually, it sounds better and
>better as it arrives close to its designed tension.
>Donald Mitchell wrote:
>>
>> On a related question.  If it is desired to decrease the tention on a
>> piano wire would a smaller or larger gauge wire be used?
>>
>The answer would have to be prefaced with "All other things being
>equal.."  This is important in that we must be thinking of the wires
>having the same speaking length and bringing them up to the same pitch.

>But since you started the above with "on a related question," perhaps
>you  are thinking of bass strings.  They are more complex.  Variables
>include overall diameter (copper plus core wire) which determines the
>tension needed to bring the bass string up to a particular pitch and
>core wire diameter which will determine the % of BP of that bass
>string.  These components can be manipulated in various ways:  larger
>outer diameter will require more tension to bring the string up to pitch
>and stess the core wire more, increasing the % of BP of the core wire.
>Use the same outer diameter, but use a bigger core wire and less copper
>and the % of BP will be less for that bigger core wire.  Varying the
>unwrapped ends of a bass string is also a factor.  Then comes the end
>product:  how does the bass string sound?  Bass string design is
>fascinating.
>
>> Last of all when attempting to use universal bass string replacements for
>> brroken bass strings what kind of compensation should be made to
>> compensate for the fact that universal strings have a hexoginal shaped
>> core and normal wire has a round core.  Is this difference significent?

I've left the above (mostly) intact as I think this is too important to
trivialize.  The variation possible in bass string design is virtually
endless.   One must have a sound in one's head before even beginning.
Hopefully, more than one sound, in fact - as different instruments require
different scaling.  The extant studies of bass strings, et al, are, for me,
largely inadequate.   Even the ones done on unwrapped strings labor under
laboratory, rather than actual use, situations.  One can, for example, get
very different results from examinations of precisely the same set of
circumstances save varying the rate of the observation/recording strobe
lights - something none of the current studies take into account.

Find a good bass string maker, who will work with you, and help them stay
in business.

Best.

Horace




Horace Greeley			hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu

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