restringing question

[Stephen Airy]

Looks like I failed to mention that I was mainly thinking 51" uprights to 5 
1/2 foot grands.

At 07:38 AM 11/27/00 -0800, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Stephen Airy" <stephen_airy@yahoo.com>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: November 27, 2000 1:59 AM
>Subject: Re: restringing question
>
>
> > I see.  It's just a matter of personal preference -- I don't like my
> > monochords to extend above A13 or my bichords to hit C28.  :)  At the
> > lowest I like my bichords to hit G11 or F9 (C4 in a Bosendorfer
>Imperial --
> > don't know if it's like that) and I like the trichords to extend down to
> > C28, B27, or A#26 (some have them down to F21 or lower maybe -- I happen
>to
> > like the tone at A25 and down that you get with wound strings).
> > ------------------------------------------------------
>
>Both of these are a function of scale length.  That is, what is appropriate
>for a concert grand is not appropriate for a 160 cm grand, or a 110 cm
>vertical or a 132 cm vertical.
>
>In general, in a longer the piano both plain wire tri-chord unisons and
>bi-chord unisons can run further down in the scale.
>
>In a smaller piano, unless there is particularly wide string spacing, the
>physical characteristics of the string -- overall diameter and space needed
>for them to vibrate without impacting neighboring strings -- will often
>dictate where the transition must be made.  We have encounter several pianos
>in which proper scaling could not be achieved with bichords because the
>original spacing was so close that the wires would probably impact on hard
>blows.
>
>If the scaling is done correctly you should hear no difference at all
>between mono-chord wrapped strings and bi-chord wrapped strings in a piano
>of reasonable size.  And the acoustical anomalies at the bass/tenor break
>are more often the result of poor soundboard and bridge design than of
>string scale design.  (Assuming, of course, that the string scaling was done
>correctly.  In most existing pianos, it is not.)
>
>Del


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