Yesterday I had to replace a string in a Kawai KG-2C grand that wouldn't tune to match its neighbors. This was on the lowest tenor note, meaning threading #19 wire under the bass strings. Aargh! In some situations I might have left it beating, but this was in a university teaching studio where I had just done extensive action work. The piano had been restrung some years ago. The lower two strings of the unison (B2), one piece of wire, tuned just fine. The upper string (looped to share with C3) was the culprit. It had false beats that would not respond to seating at the bridge. Yet the C3 end of the wire tuned up OK to its neighbors. None of the B2 strings showed any foreign matter (glue, rust, whatever) or obvious kinks. But when the offending wire was removed, one side of the loop (I assume the wild end) looked more curly than the other, as though it had received a lot of twist when it was strung. My question is this: will twisting a string affect its inharmonicity or introduce false beats? Bill Maxim, RPT wmaxim@aol.com
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