Twisting bass strings and the direction of the hitch pin segment

[John Delacour]

At 10:38 pm -0500 10/8/07, Bruce Dornfeld wrote:

>There is a question I've had for years about twisting bass strings 
>and the way some strings are made.  We are taught to twist them in 
>the direction of the winding.  We just had a long discussion related 
>to that.  But what about the direction of the hitch pin segment? 
>The hitch pin segment, that is, the loop and twists made to hold the 
>loop, is not done in the same direction by all string makers.  Some 
>bass strings are madeÊso when we twist to tighten the copper 
>winding, it serves to loosen or unwind the hitch pin segment.

As a stringmaker who regularly receives old strings for replacement I 
quite often see this.  As you say, the strings in question are 
usually from cheap commercial pians made with very little care in all 
respects.  When I began in the piano trade there was one stringmaker 
I used who made the winding of the top cover in one direction for the 
single-covered strings and in the other for the double-covered, with 
the eyes all twisted in the same direction.

>   Some string makers I have spoken with have also justifiedÊa rather 
>long unwound segment near the agraffe, by explaining that strings 
>tend to keep going in the direction of the agraffes year after year, 
>not just after the initial stretching.

That might account for 2 or 3 millimetres over the years but not for 
the amount you are talking about.  The same stringmaker will almost 
certainly give you too much uncovered wire at the soundboard bridge 
end.  What justification has he for that??

>   Could this be part of the reason this happens on some strings?  Do 
>any of you who regularly restring pianos noticeÊmore instability 
>with strings that are mad! e this way?

If the eye does not have enough twists, it will continue to slip, 
either quickly or more slowly.  The number of twists for a given 
gauge of wire and length of eye is quite important, since too tight a 
twisting will create a weak point at the beginning of the spiral.

>   I have only seen new pianos of off brands with bass strings made 
>this way, but most of theÊpianos that were rebuilt over the last 
>fifty yearsÊaround Chicago have strings like this.ÊÊBass strings 
>have been made this way for decades, so maybe it's not really a 
>problem,Êany comments?

If you were to put turns in a string that was made like this in order 
to try to revive it, as some people do, I think the eye would be more 
likely to break than if both eye and winding were in the same 
direction.

JD