String breakage with Pure Sound

[John Delacour]

At 22:50 +0100 11/2/08, Richard Brekne wrote:

>I have one piano in use that utilizes pure sound wire exclusively. 
>And I am experiencing quite a bit of string breakage where I nearly 
>never experience it with usual wire...
>
>Any good explanation for this ?  Tension for the scale puts things 
>well below the safety margin for breaking %.

The good explanation is almost certainly that you are believing the 
advertised tensile strength of the wire, which, as I have suggested 
before in this connexion, is more imaginary than likely.  I don't use 
the stuff myself and have no plans to, but most pianos of the period 
for which PS is supposedly recommended so far as I recall, require 
far stronger wire.

Give one or two examples of strings that have broken : the length, 
the frequency and the gauge of the wire used and let's have a look at 
the question.  If a string breaks at the English eye (at the point of 
the "tear-drop") then the cause is almost always excessive tension.

JD