straight stringing

[Les Smith]

On Thu, 2 Oct 1997, thart wrote:

> To the list,                                                       
>                                                                          
>        In a recent conversation with fellow technicians the statement was 
> made that single strung plain wire unisonslacked the sound (tone and 
> volume)of plain wire unisons where the strings are looped around the 
> hitch pins. I would very much like to get other opinions on this.        

First of all, I believe you're misusing the term straight-stringing, which
refers to a piano in which the bass strings are parallel with the treble
strings, rather than crossing over them in a manner referred to as over-
strung. What I believe you're referring to is a piano in which each indi-
vidaul string is tied to it's own individual hitch pin, rather than one
hitch pin serving two strings, one down and one back. The notion that the
latter stringing method results in more volume and better tone is basical-
ly a crock.. The reason the former method  is rarely encountered today has
nothing to do with tone-quality or volume, it has to do with production
costs ansd corporate expediency. Simply put, it takes more time (and hence
money) to string a piano with individually tied strings than it does one
where one hitchpin serves two strings and NEITHER ONE OF THEM ARE TIED.
The manufacturers adopted the latter system because of cost considerations
despite the fact that the evidence is pretty clear the a piano with indi-
vidually tied strings is more stable, tuning-wise.

Where the misconception about tone and volume may have arisen from is
the fact that the only place one still finds pianos strung with indi-
vidually tied strings is in very expensive, high-quality European-made
instruments like Bosendorfer and Bluthner. The tone-quality of the two
IS different (ie. softer) than that of American-made pianos, but that
has nothing to do with the WAY the piano is strung. It has to do with
the fact that both pianos using a softer, German-made wire and differ-
ences in the design of the pianos themselves. 

Many fine-quality American-made pianos built in the last century utilized
individually tied strings. When re-strung with modern wire, the volume
of sound they produce is comparable to that of a modern piano utilizing
a one-pin-two-string stringing system and ALSO louder than the European
pianos utilizing individually tied strings. So the difference in volume
and tone quality between the pianos is related to the type of wire they
use and the design of the piano, NOT whether the strings are individually
tied, or not.     

Which is not to say, however, that I can't imagine American manufacturers
tryin to explain away the change from individually tied strings to the
one-hitchpin-two-string system by SAYING they did it for tonal reasons.
I can. It's just that it's not true. They did it for economic reasons,
and at the sacrifice on some tuning stability.

Whew! Sorry that was so long!

Les Smith
lessmih@buffnet.net