[pianotech] Steinway A Bass String Rescaling

Ron Nossaman rnossaman at cox.net
Fri May 22 19:53:01 MDT 2009


William Truitt wrote:
> Hi Jude:
> 
> I have rescaled a number of pianos in the past, and I have always wondered
> what the inharmonicity numbers really mean.  I know they are supposed to
> fall in the hockey stick on the graph, but really I have nothing for them to
> stand in comparison to.  

Are they? Why does the inharmonicity in the low bass have to 
be higher than the lowest point of the curve? Since I've 
gotten into scaling, I've wondered why so much emphasis is put 
on inharmonicity, when it's functionally of a relatively low 
priority other than big jumps at breaks.


>Typically in the past, I have aimed to even out the
> inharmonicity and the tensions (with attention paid to breaking percentage)
> as much as possible without taking the scale in another direction (i. e.
> making the scale better at what it already is).  

Concept alert! I thought the whole point was to make the scale 
better than it is.


>What is interesting about
> the present discussion is that we are moving the general parameters, as well
> as working to achieve evenness through the scale.

Well, yea. The intent is to improve the thing.


> I understand that a piano that has little or no inharmonicity would be
> pretty milque toast.  

Maybe, but is it achievable in the real world for testing?
Ron N


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