On a Scale of One equal tension

[Richard Moody]

The reason I got interested in the "equal tension scale" is because the guy
from American Wire and Steel was so enthusiastic about it.   He said it
should make tuning more stable, and give equal down bearing on the bridge
among other things. The book was called "Procedings of Pian Makers
Conferences of 1910 - 1912"  or something like that.   Its out of print
which is a shame.   I suppose I shall have to offer $30 to get that one.
I had this Conover Cable grand I owned and it needed restringing, and my
Atari 800 needed a task, so I computed the scale, and calculated the sizes
for equal tension. The closest I could get was 155 lb for #88 to 170 for #29
or what ever the first tenor note was.  The string sizes to the unknowing
eye would appear hap-hazzard.  Some of the trichords had one size each which
made for a lot of tied ends which didn't help the bearing much.  I had the
bass strings made by Schaff.   The bass can only be tuned approximently,
which I assume is bad inharmonicity and the hammers are lacking in the
treble.  It has wonderful sustain and records very well.  I did reduce the
frightening amount of bearing in the treble. The hammers are marsh mellows
replacements someone else installed.   This is one set I am not adverse to
doping.  How much the tonal qualities are due to equal tension I cannot say.
If I did something like this again I would probably try for an equal
distribution of elasticity.  There has to be an optimum tension for a given
thickness because of the qualities of the wire.   This fellow also warned
about stretching a string beyond its elasticity limit which is not the same
as breaking limit.
    Now that I can put the scale and inharmonicity formulas into spread
sheets I should do that to see what the  ih readings are.   They did not
know about ih in 1910, I am  not sure if it was known before 1937, or at
least the measuring of it.   I don't remember that this idea was ever put to
use or production.    --ric



> Tuning a Cable Nelson (Lyon & Healy) yesterday, I noticed something
> interesting about the tenor/treble bridge. Periodically, the speaking
> length progressions would change at every four or six unisons, so that at
> the change, the note above was nearly as long as the one below. . It was a
genuine equal tension scale, at least through the
> treble.  ..... the tension changes between
> wire sizes as smooth as possible. Of course, it screws up the
corresponding
> inharmonicity curve, but what the heck.
>
> I've heard a lot of talk about equal tension scaling through the years,
but
> this is the first production example where I've seen it done through the
> treble.......
> Now for the big question. Why would anyone particularly care if string
> tensions were the same through any particular section when it's done at
the
> expense of the inharmonicity curve? Yea, OK, they probably didn't have the
> inharmonicity information we have today and were playing the cards they
> had, but it still seems like a strange approach.
>
> Ron N