[CAUT] Pure Sound Wire

[Adkins, Richard]

Friends,

I used it on an L according to the scale provided two years ago.

The tone was sweeter, if not as strong, and the attack was really nice. The
best attack
I've heard from strings. This might be because they are softer wire.

I only had one string break at the hitch pin, which I replaced and the
others held, UNTIL this year, second term, when they began breaking from
about A4 up through C6 I believe.

 Mostly the 16.5, 16s, but I did have some 15 1/2s, 17s, and an
18 break too.

I reported this to Carlos, the developer, and he called me from Amsterdam to
discuss this.
We spoke at some length. Needless to say, he was very upset to hear this.

He claims that the string is softer and tends to wrap around the bearing
points, so you
must first lower tension (back off) before tuning. He says that since he's
altered his approach
to tuning the pure sound wire he's not had any breaking strings.

Try it and see,I'm going to. He kindly sent me replacement wire at his
expense for my trouble.

I have replaced most of the pure sound wire w/Mapes.

I agree, I regularly tune pianos with strings atleast 50 if not 100 years
old
that have not broken in all that time!

I wanted to stainless steel wire to eliminate the rust problem. Well, I
probably
did eliminate the rust problem with it, but got a breakage problem instead.

When you install the wire, you must wind the coils slowly, and also make
your hitch
ends slowly. He advises that you put some lube on the hitch pins, and
perhaps a pin point
at the agraffes or bridge pins. I had lubed the hitch pins, but not the
bridge or agraffes.
You can also lube the capo on the non speaking side, and any bearing points
between
the tuning pin and the capo. This "should" minimize breaking.

I don't mind replacing one or two occassionaly, but whole sections are just
too much.

Juan says this wire/scaling was made for pianos with a very "short scale". I
don't
know what kind of scale the B has.

Even the new B's sound weird at the break from note #20 and 21,22.

It's been a great experiment, but really upset me when they began to pop
left and right,
and over night! Hope Juan's techniques will prevent any more. I won't be
using that
wire again, until I can verify the new approach works. I'd like to do a
Steinway S
that is very rusty with it. Maybe just Mapes will have to do.

YMMV....!

Cheers

Richard Adkins
Coe College
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