Hi Joe I am back on list after a working trip over 7000 Kilometres so am a bit hazy on this thread. I don,t know were I heard it so it must be the gospel truth but. twisting strings does increase the breaking tension but it also decreases the elasticity of the string. Thus to keep the piano with good elasticity in the string don't twist it. By decreasing the elasticity of the string you will increase the inharmonicity but more to the point when you twist the string it makes it stiffer, this also shortens the sustain time and also be cause the string is stiffer you also are retarding the harmonics of the string. You will notice that when you sometimes twist the bass strings to tighten the coils of the winding, the sound becomes more vibrant, if you twist the string too much the sound becomes hollow and by untwisting that string (after twisting too much) it does not loose its hollowness. Regards Tony Caught ICPTG Australia caute@optusnet.com.au ----- Original Message ----- From: joegum <joegum@webtv.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Friday, November 24, 2000 2:31 PM Subject: Re: Re: Twangy pianos + stringing OK. I snuck a peek at this list again. I'm not referring to a mere 90zZ degree twist. (Though I personally would avoid even that. Old habits die hard, I guess.) In my original post, I was thinking of a full 360 or more applied in an attempt to strengthen the wire to minimize breakage incidents when stringing. By any chance, might you have experimented with breaking tension of twisted vs. untwisted strings. Or, have you at least heard of twisting the string to increase its breaking tension? (Am I really the only one on earth who has? Any old-timers out there? Any metals experts out there? I had always assumed it was common knowledge in the trade. Maybe I'm just hallucinating....) -Joe
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