Wound Trichords

[Ron Nossaman]

>Hi Ron,
>
>Looks like you did some figuring for me!  Thanks a lot, that illuminates 
>the situation in such a detailed way.

Well, that was just a rough basic description of the kind of problems 
you're up against, not a specific recommendation.


>That C# measures about 0.043" with my calipers, by the way.  I got 
>readings between 0.0415 up to 0.044, so the average is about a #19?

Getting that kind of spread, I'd say try a different tool. Use a micrometer 
and try to get some repeatable measurements.


>Do you think there is ANY merit or possibilities in the idea of using 
>softer steel or iron wires, such as the ones offered for the restoration 
>of pianos that originally did not use modern steel music wire, in those 
>lowest plain wire strings in my piano or others with similar issues.

Why not? If you want it to be as near like it was originally as is 
possible, do whatever you think will make it that way. As to mixing wire 
types in a scale, no.


>Such wire is, I believe, more flexible, and the % of breaking strain would 
>be raised, which I think I would reduce the sharpness of the partials to 
>make a better transition.  I guess it would not improve tuning stability, 
>since the absolute tension would be about the same.

I don't know - haven't used it for anything.


>And the question I had and still have about that was, Do you get the 
>advantages of all that power when the modern string is at relatively low 
>tension compared to its elastic limit ---------------/-------------------

What you get is the tubby sounding honking distortion that you can hear in 
the low tenor sections of a whole lot of pianos out there with poor scaling 
(and/or soundboard problems).


>  And would you lose any power by using a softer string *at the same 
> absolute tension*?

Don't know, I haven't tried it.


>I am thinking that the increased gross tension that the iron plate made 
>possible had a lot to do with the increased power.

Yes, and the soundboard assemblies, rims, increased downbearing, heavy 
hammers, etc.


>But in parts of a scale that don't have the the benefit of the longer 
>strings or a particularly high gross (absolute)tension, what's the big 
>benefit to modern wire?

Durability, I'd say.


>I guess the increased stiffness of the modern wire makes it brighter, and 
>raises the Q factor, too (longer sustain?).

Not necessarily. There's a whole lot more to this than the wire.


>Still, the stiffness means higher inharmonicity, which is undesirable just 
>above the break of small pianos, isn't it?

The inharmonicity isn't high in the low tenor of small pianos because of 
the stiffness of modern wire. It's high because the scaling is poor. It's a 
design problem, not a wire problem.


>Just wondering if there would be any point in entertaining a scheme of, 
>say, using wound bichords for C# and D, then a wire that's annealed or 
>whatever to be slightly softer for the next few notes.

That seems like a sort of backward approach to me, like touching up the 
X-rays to affect a cure. I don't see a lot of point to going to that kind 
of trouble to try to disguise a lousy design with a band-aid patch. The 
piano that needs this kind of thing almost certainly has plenty of other 
design "features" that need improvement as well. I'd much rather see the 
problems eliminated (or at least minimized) at the root cause, if possible, 
than see the resulting symptoms disguised after the fact.

Ron N