Stringing Braid and the perception of doing it right

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cy Shuster" <charter1400@charter.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: May 28, 2003 8:05 AM
Subject: Re: Stringing Braid and the perception of doing it right



>
> 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?

Let's not confuse what is happening in the backscale with what takes place
in the frontscale--the distance between the V-bar/agraffe and the front
bearing bar. Braiding out the backscale will prevent sympathetic vibrations
from developing in the backscale string segments, it will not prevent them
from moving. Their motion will still track that of the bridge.

The front scale is a whole other issue. The V-bar/agraffe should not be
moving and most energy making it past the string termination point will be
lost.

I don't see damping the backscale string segments as being particularly
harmful to overall sustain time. Whereas allowing energy to leak past the
V-bar/agraffe is.


>
> Adding mass could have more side effects (damping soundboard motion);
what
> about snap-on sleeves of some kind?  You'd have to prevent buzzing
somehow.
> Could they even be coupled across each other in a way that would still
allow
> tuning movement?  Stiff plastic sheet, a few inches wide?

Isn't this all overkill? Stringing braid works--when required--just fine
and does not have the effect of mass-loading the vibrating system. Or did I
miss something?

Del