Stringing Braid and the perception of doing it right

[Ron Nossaman]

>I imagine (don't know) that those string segments still vibrate against the
>braiding felt (perhaps more slowly).  This seems like a waste of perfectly
>good kinetic energy.  If they could be made stiffer, or have more mass,
>wouldn't their energy be reflected back into the speaking length, the same
>way we want rims to be rigid?
>--------------------
>--Cy Shuster--


Strings don't have to "vibrate" to move. Braided strings still move, as in 
not impeding soundboard movement, they just don't make a lot of noise. The 
increased sustain effect happens in the top half, and is actually coming 
from some un-muted back segment further down scale. I don't think the 
sustain of a specific string in the top section is significantly longer 
when the back scale isn't braided, but it seems that way as something 
further down keeps ringing. Making the back scale stiffer would impede 
soundboard movement (un-good). I don't know about mass loading.

Ron N