straight stringing

[pianoman]

----------
> From: Les Smith <lessmith@BUFFNET.NET>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: straight stringing
> Date: Thursday, October 02, 1997 6:46 PM
> 
> Dear Les,
Kawai has individual tied strings on their older KG-8C'
James Grebe
pianoman@inlink.coms
> 
> On Thu, 2 Oct 1997, thart wrote:
> 
> > To the list,                                                       
> >                                                                        
 
> >        In a recent conversation with fellow technicians the statement
was 
> > made that single strung plain wire unisonslacked the sound (tone and 
> > volume)of plain wire unisons where the strings are looped around the 
> > hitch pins. I would very much like to get other opinions on this.      
 
> 
> First of all, I believe you're misusing the term straight-stringing,
which
> refers to a piano in which the bass strings are parallel with the treble
> strings, rather than crossing over them in a manner referred to as over-
> strung. What I believe you're referring to is a piano in which each indi-
> vidaul string is tied to it's own individual hitch pin, rather than one
> hitch pin serving two strings, one down and one back. The notion that the
> latter stringing method results in more volume and better tone is
basical-
> ly a crock.. The reason the former method  is rarely encountered today
has
> nothing to do with tone-quality or volume, it has to do with production
> costs ansd corporate expediency. Simply put, it takes more time (and
hence
> money) to string a piano with individually tied strings than it does one
> where one hitchpin serves two strings and NEITHER ONE OF THEM ARE TIED.
> The manufacturers adopted the latter system because of cost
considerations
> despite the fact that the evidence is pretty clear the a piano with indi-
> vidually tied strings is more stable, tuning-wise.
> 
> Where the misconception about tone and volume may have arisen from is
> the fact that the only place one still finds pianos strung with indi-
> vidually tied strings is in very expensive, high-quality European-made
> instruments like Bosendorfer and Bluthner. The tone-quality of the two
> IS different (ie. softer) than that of American-made pianos, but that
> has nothing to do with the WAY the piano is strung. It has to do with
> the fact that both pianos using a softer, German-made wire and differ-
> ences in the design of the pianos themselves. 
> 
> Many fine-quality American-made pianos built in the last century utilized
> individually tied strings. When re-strung with modern wire, the volume
> of sound they produce is comparable to that of a modern piano utilizing
> a one-pin-two-string stringing system and ALSO louder than the European
> pianos utilizing individually tied strings. So the difference in volume
> and tone quality between the pianos is related to the type of wire they
> use and the design of the piano, NOT whether the strings are individually
> tied, or not.     
> 
> Which is not to say, however, that I can't imagine American manufacturers
> tryin to explain away the change from individually tied strings to the
> one-hitchpin-two-string system by SAYING they did it for tonal reasons.
> I can. It's just that it's not true. They did it for economic reasons,
> and at the sacrifice on some tuning stability.
> 
> Whew! Sorry that was so long!
> 
> Les Smith
> lessmih@buffnet.net
>