Strate Mate...Was Remedial String Leveling

[A440A@aol.com]

Joe writes:

<< The tool will take away most of the non-parallelness of the strings, but at

the same time removes some of the elasticity of the string, limiting the

amount of movement available to compensate for misdrilled agraffes. A catch

22, Save some work, make your work harder >>

        It is possible to lower a string, too.  This often is needed with the 
Steinway agraffe sections.  (It can't be rocket science to drill the agraffes 
evenly, and to tap the plate at 90 degrees to the string plane! And if it is, 
S&S should hire the rocket scientists that seem to live at Yamaha, Schimmell, 
Boston, and others! ) It blows my mind that such a high-profile instrument 
should suffer from such a basic foundational sloppiness.  
     A steel rod with a saw kerf in the side near the end, wide enough to fit 
over the string, can be used to put a slight kink in the string downward. I 
have done this and found there to be no noticeable effect on that strings 
inharmonicity, tone,  or "voice". 
        I use a four inch long 3/8" rod with a saw kerf about 1/4" from the 
end.  I file the rod into a square that is, ultimately, about 1/4" on a side.  
You may need to use two hack-saw blades stacked together to ge the kerf wide 
enough.  I file the rod flat before making the cut and after I have the right 
notch cut in it, I file the uncut side until it can fit between the strings of 
a trichord.  It takes pretty good steel to have the strength to bend .045" 
wire without breaking.  O-1 properly hardened after shaping is good enough.  
Smaller diameter wire can be kinked more easily with a smaller kerf.  Coupled with 
the tool to lift the wire, neither needs to make an extreme bend in order to 
level the string.  
      Smooth all the edges so there is no nick placed in the string, and 
round the bottom so that the occasional contact with the plate doesn't dig a small 
pit ,(damhiK) in the finish.  
   Hope this heresy helps. 


Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html