[CAUT] Pure Sound Wire

Paul T Williams pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu
Mon May 10 08:39:50 MDT 2010


Works for me! :>)

Paul




From:
"Ed  Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com>
To:
<caut at ptg.org>
Date:
05/10/2010 09:37 AM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] Pure Sound Wire



Zeno-
Go to a good hardware or hobby shop and get two lengths of 1/8" copper or 
brass tubing, about 3 feet long.
Tape them together, side by side. Cut and bend the wire and slide it into 
the tubes. The tubes slip under the bass strings and deliver the bend to 
the hitch pin on the first try.
Ed S.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Zeno Wood 
To: caut at ptg.org 
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 10:03 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Pure Sound Wire

Although, those three notes are a pain to restring, given that they're 
under the bass strings and have to be hitched in that "golden pond" area.


On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Ed Sutton <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote:
Paul-
 
When the M was strung with standard piano wire, it had no broken strings 
after 75 years.
When it was strung with Pure Sound, high treble strings broke 
spontaneously, ping-in-the-middle-of-the-night.
I think the appropriate use of Pure Sound is in low tensioned, 19th 
century instruments. I have had good success in that application. 
 
Pure Sound is prone to break at the becket, and at the back of the 
hitchpin. When you bend it back and forth, you can feel that it is much 
softer than standard piano wire.
 
In instruments where the lowest tenor notes are short scaled (low 
tension), it might be an alternative to wound strings.
You could try Pure Sound on the first three lowest plain wire notes of the 
B. It will probably make tuning easier, and if they break, you've only got 
three notes to restring.
 
Ed
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul T Williams 
To: caut at ptg.org 
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 8:46 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Pure Sound Wire

Fred, 

Curious, as I'm planning on doing this same project on a early 80's B this 
summer, what year was this piano of yours?  Thankfully, (Thank you, 
Richard West), the action was de-tefloned before my starting here and I 
replaced the hammers last year, but still many broken strings on the capo 
area. I want to nip this one in the bud. I replace at least one string 
every other week in this piano professor's studio.  They might lessen, 
just because the main piano pounder was an energetic GTA who's now 
graduated!   

Richard put forth another issue that some of you might know more 
about...that the plate was origianally located poorly. How much would this 
problem affect string breakage? Could it also affect that strange sound 
from F2 that happens on all of our 70's and 80's Steinway B's? 

Best, 

Paul 



From: 
Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> 
To: 
Ed  Sutton <ed440 at mindspring.com>, caut at ptg.org 
Date: 
05/09/2010 09:02 PM 
Subject: 
Re: [CAUT] Pure Sound Wire




On May 9, 2010, at 7:51 PM, Ed Sutton wrote: 

A few years ago Pure Sound wire was being promoted as suitable for use on 
S & S M pianos. 
Has anyone tried it? 
Have you had breakage problems? 
Thank you. 
  
Ed Sutton 

I experimented with Pure Sound on a B a couple summers ago (piano in a 
classroom). I will be restringing the treble sections (capo) this summer. 
Far, far too much breakage. Tenor is great, and does sound noticeably 
better (well, it's subtle, but better - clarity and sustain, as well as a 
better inharmonicity match, and F2 area tunes much more easily). But the 
breakage in the capo section has been nearly 50%, compared to maybe as 
much as 5% (mostly much less) in pianos with standard wire. No broken 
strings (so far) in the tenor (up to C#5). 
I should note that I did use the extra strong wire as recommended as well 
as recommended scaling. 
Regards, 
Fred Sturm 
fssturm at unm.edu 
http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm 
http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm 
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm 







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