Unwrapped ends of bass strings

[John Delacour]

At 23:29 30/09/01 -0400, Newton Hunt wrote:

>Yes, unwrapped ends do effect inharmonicity, inharmonicity increases by
>the fourth power of the distance unwrapped.  That being said, it is
>difficult for most string makers to control the agraffe end closer than
>two or three millimeters.

I don't understand why you say that or why the agraffe end should be any 
more "difficult to control" than the other end.  We work to a tolerance of 
less than a millimetre provided we are given a neatly taken rubbing to work 
from.  Much production work in the past and now is of very poor quality -- 
if I were to describe how strings were made in England 20 years ago, you 
would hardly believe quite how poor.

>In order for them to come out perfectly even you need a real gifted string 
>winder.

Exact marking requires no gift, just proper care and attention to 
detail.  It is a separate process from the winding, which certainly 
requires the same, plus experience and the "knack", which is gained by 
constant keeping of oneself up to the mark.  The proper tightness of the 
copper cover is measurable by the reduction in diameter occasioned by the 
degree of tension applied to the cover.  A new string-maker needs to be 
monitored very closely. Core x + cover y should give o/d z.  If he/she is 
getting a smaller o/d, then the pull is too much and too great a diameter 
means the winding is too loosely applied.  Even an experienced operative 
can for one reason or another veer off the ideal, though not significantly, 
and needs to make regular spot checks of the evenness and tightness of his 
covers. An experience operative will not vary during the course of making a 
set or even during the course of a day, but a general error can creep in 
over a period, rarely enough to affect quality.  Illness or weakness due to 
age can, of course, deprive the stringmaker of the necessary strength to 
apply correct tension manually.  Semi-automatic tensioning is possible and 
can be very exact, but there is no advantage if skilled operatives are 
available.

>I would order a set of strings from the factory, either New York or
>Hamburg.  They will be wrapped to the factory specifications whereas if
>you get a set made by someone else they will follow their own ideas of
>string making.  In the case of a Steinway "D" it is critical to get a
>good set.

Any string-maker ought to have details of the Steinway original 
specifications and be happy to work to these or to modify them, entirely 
according to the customer's wishes.  As to the quality of NY strings, I 
have no idea.  As to the quality of Hamburg strings, I have no further comment.

JD