All, Like Jim, I was also inspired by the presentations. Jim dived in with the product on BYU Steinways, and I ran around the country with my Early Steinway Grand program telling folks that it might be good for early, short scale Steinways but I hadn't tried it yet, so talk to Jim..... I've since used Pure Sound wire on two 6'4" Webers, an 1884 and an 1880, the former only in the high treble, the latter for all the plain wire. FWIW A85 on both is 56mm, and C8 on the 88 note 1884 is 48mm. I've never had any breakage, but these are somewhat short scale pianos. The 1884 gets some hard playing. On the 1880 we also copied the traditionally designed, near-flat soundboard with ribs parallel to the spline. It's an incredibly sweet piano; I'm told that the sound tends to develop with Pure Sound wire over more than 6 months I'm told, so I'll see if there's any change (or lots of broken strings?) when I service it next. We will soon string an 1871 Erard 7' and our choices seem to be Pure Sound wire or Stephen Paulello wire _http://www.arnopianos.com/paulello.pdf_ (http://www.arnopianos.com/paulello.pdf) I'll consult with some European Erard specialists about this too. But my experience with Pure Sound wire is positive so far on shorter scale instruments. It's available through Jurgen at Pianoforte Supply still, I think. Juan uses a pretty sophisticated scaling program that calculates for several types of wire. Has anyone had breakage problems on earlier instruments with Pure Sound wire? While Pure Sound wire is stainless, I think Stephen Paulello wire is annealed Roslau, but he has 5 different types. But that's all I "know"....the link above is to the US distributor's description and price list with some interesting discussion about how each of the 5 types of Paulello wire is used, and spreadsheets of data. Like Juan and Pure Sound, Paulello recommends his wire for rescaling modern pianos also, to improve transitions etc. Does anyone have experience with Paulello wire? The US distributor is in Ann Arbor, MI, Arno Piano, and sells a rescaling program, ABAX, designed for Paulello wire. I'm impressed with the extent to which both Juan Mas Cabre and Stephen Paulello claim their wire is designed for different historic periods, and would love to hear how this has worked out in practice. I'm on the Fortepiano list and have seen some discussion about this, and the conclusion there is that nothing works like the original wire did.....so far we're very roughly approximating at best. I remain pretty ignorant, but always interested in the subject of string scaling, and especially wish to understand historic wire, and what best works as replacement wire. We'll have some experience with at least one Erard soon...with an 8' instrument to follow. Regards, Bill Bill Shull, RPT, M.Mus. In a message dated 5/10/2010 2:54:34 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, jim_busby at byu.edu writes: Hi Peter, This is why I did... Juan came to two different conventions with a very impressive presentation about the wire. Imagine--- No more rust! Better sound! Immediately stable! (no extra tunings & prep needed), Measurably less inharmonicity! Tried it... Loved it, then the breakage started... I hope someday someone will make it work. Jim -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Peter Sumner Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 9:38 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Pure Sound Wire I guess I'm wondering why folks are experimenting? Isn't it the responsibility of technicians to follow established working procedures....?...especially in an institution where budgets are limited, the work load horrendous and where enthusiasm sometimes trumps technical abilities. Mapes produce music wire for all kinds of applications including most of the guitar strings sold in various coloured packets and brands. What is wrong with restringing with the wire the factory used in the first place...? A fundamental question may be this... Do Institutional Techs feel that their work place is a laboratory?.... Forgive my naivety here....I am merely a tech on the road, without a shop and a budget...doing occasional Institutional work when I'm asked for advice or to help out in some way..... I'm sure someone here can straighten me out....? New kid on the block Peter Sumner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100510/fb9210b0/attachment-0001.htm>
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