My oh my...... This is getting interesting. When I wrote my orignal post, I promise that I had no idea that what I was posting was so controversial. But, as they say, "Inn for a penny, in for a pound." I was asked for sources... I found some more. In Mr. John W. Travis' "A Guide to Restringing," 2nd Edition, on page 29: "....Before you put too much tension on the strings, see that they are spaced as nearly perfect as possible, and as you intend to leave them. This takes a little more time, but will save you many headaches, such as having to let the tension down again before you can move the wire, or forcing the wire by TWISTING AND ROLLING IT, THUS CAUSING FALSE BEATS WHICH REMAIN WITH THE PIANO FROM THEN ON..." In Mr. Arthur A. Reblitz' "Piano Servicing, Tuning & Rebuilding", 2nd Edition, on page 115: "Other causes of false beats, ringing, or jangling noises in the treble strings are TWISTS, bends kinks, heavy rust spots, or RAISING THE STRING TOO FAR ABOVE THE CORRECT PITCH DURING TUNING, WHICH CAUSES THE WIRE TO STRETCH SO FAR THAT IT BECOMES DEFORMED." Again, I am by no means stating, implying or anything else, that the string alone is the source of all false beats. I am only stating that avoiding twists and over pulling as much as humanly possible can only improve things. And, in my original post, I proposed that on certain economy pianos twisting and over pulling may or may not have been used for the sake of efficiency. -Joe
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC