<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>In a message dated 6/24/04 2:23:37 PM Central Daylight Time, sbirkett@real.uwaterloo.ca writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1>Both strings will have the same stres= s for the same scale position, but the thinner string is stronger so more able t= o withstand that same stress level.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1>I'd check for other factors that are = causing the breakage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1>By the way, what is the pitch, speaki= ng length, and wire gage of the offending string?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=-1>Stephen</FONT></DIV><X-SIGSEP></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><PRE><DIV><FONT = face=Arial>Stephen</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>= <DIV><FONT face=Arial>This is the high A (16 5/8") & A# (16 1/4") of t= his particular Autoharp. </FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial>I've trying to= use .020, and then went to .018. </FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial>But b= oth broke. I'll try .016. </FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> = </DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial>If the strings were breaking at the same place= , I would think that would be the cause. But some are</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT= face=Arial>breaking at the v-bar, some at the pin, some at the winding. <= /FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face=Ari= al>Wim </FONT></DIV></PRE></FONT></BODY></HTML>