string breakage warning

[Farrell]

You are absolutely correct Conrad. Just for fun I did exactly that a while
back. I had a 1900 Everett small grand in my shop that was untunable - rusty
strings, etc. - it had been unused for decades. I turned on my SAT and
started pulling the stings up in pitch slowly so that I could observe the
point at which they broke. The strings I tried this on were in the middle
two sections. As I recall, all the strings broke somewhere between 200 and
400 cents sharp - most went over 300 cents sharp before breaking.

What fun!

Terry Farrell

SNIP
>
> If the tension of the string is at 25-60% of breaking strength when it is
> at pitch, you really have to go out of your way to break it.  Next time
you
> have a few spare minutes, a victim piano and your stringing supply all
> together in one place, try breaking a string (plain wire,
> please...).   Play it while you are cranking up the tension. You'll be
> amazed how high it is before it starts to fail (plastic deformation) and
> finally breaks.  [also a good demo for that customer who INSISTS that you
> broke that string during that once-a-score tuning]
>
> Conrad Hoffsommer, RPT, MPT, CCT, PFP, ACS, CRS.
> Decorah, IA