Greetings, I wrote: > It is possible to lower a string, too. > 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. >> Joe asks: >>Whoa, if you can do that bringing the string up, why not down also? It can, but I prefer to level the strings by straightening the low strings upward, first, if possible. It is quicker and easier than bending them down, and I have always thought that strings that left the termination point in as straight a line as possible would have the least amount of lateral (bridge) or vertical (agraffe)directed restorative force in them. It seems that if there is a favored direction sideways at the bridge, and downward at the agraffe, they would work in opposition to one another and the string would have a less organized mode of vibration. (lotta technical sounding words to say that I think the unrelieved bends in the wire might confuse the string. Am I the only one here that suspects that pianos have minds in them?) This may be my imagination, but it seems that there is more sustain in the string after I have removed the slight curvatures in the speaking length between the bridge and the agraffe. The slight bend to lower a wire is, in theory, going to distort the wire's most natural path of vibration, but I haven't noticed it in a measurable way. Hell, most of what I do is completely fettered in superstition and voodoo, so only a fool would follow this advice without testing it for themselves!! Every time one of my ideas get proven wrong means one more right thing I then have at my disposal. Regards, Ed Foote
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