stringing scale on old grand

[Farrell]

"A:  the piano was restrung at some point by someone who was too lazy (or ignorant) to use the correct size of wire, and just used what he had on hand"

Very likely

"or B:  the piano really came out of the factory like this."

Unlikely, but I've seen worse from a factory.

"In either case, when it comes to restringing, should I use the same sizes as before, or interpolate half sizes in between the abrupt changes?  I was thinking that if there are say, twelve consecutive notes that are size 16 and then the size changes to 17.5, maybe I should use size 16 for four notes, size 16.5 for four notes, and size 17 for four notes.  Is this a dumb idea?"

Did Scotty just beam me up? Have I been in a time warp?

Yes, it is a "dumb idea" (your words). I don't mean to harp on you in particular, but do some folks on this list not read other posts? We just had a discussion two days ago about restringing and rescaling. In the past, there have been dozens of discussions about wire sizes and rescaling. Most experienced rebuilders who aim for good (or better) results, rescale every piano that gets new strings in their shop AS A MATTER OF COURSE.

If you don't know what you are doing with rescaling - like me - hire a qualified technician to rescale the piano for you. Why guess? Fees are generally very modest and you will likely be improving the piano over its original configuration.

IMHO, rescale every piano that gets new strings in your shop.

And without any doubt what-so-ever, if you have any inclination that the current scale is not original, or not "good" (for whatever reason), rescale the piano.

RESCALE! There are professionals out there who provide excellent rescaling services for their livelihood! To name just a few that I am aware of: Del Fandrich, Ron Nossaman, Joe Garritt, David Sanderson, and I'm sure there are dozens others.

Sorry for all the capital letters in this post, but I'm really quite amazed how there doesn't seem to be an awareness of rescaling as even an option.

I'll get off my high horse now. 

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Mulik 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 7:52 AM
  Subject: stringing scale on old grand


  Hello list,

  I'm rebuilding a 100-year-old old Frank S. Botefuhr (stencil) grand that was given to me free of charge.  Mostly, I'm just doing this for the eductional experience, but I hope to end up with a saleable piano when I'm done.  

  After measuring downbearing at several points and lowering the string tension as Reblitz recommends, I removed the treble strings (starting from the top), measuring them with a music wire gauge as I went.  I had expected to find that six or eight consecutive notes would have the same size wire, then the wire size would be a half-size larger for the next six or eight notes, etc., all the way down.  However, this was not the case on this piano.  Through most of the treble and tenor, the wire size was the same for about an octave, then it was abruptly 1.5 sizes larger. 

  So I'm wondering which is the case:

  A:  the piano was restrung at some point by someone who was too lazy (or ignorant) to use the correct size of wire, and just used what he had on hand

  or B:  the piano really came out of the factory like this.

  In either case, when it comes to restringing, should I use the same sizes as before, or interpolate half sizes in between the abrupt changes?  I was thinking that if there are say, twelve consecutive notes that are size 16 and then the size changes to 17.5, maybe I should use size 16 for four notes, size 16.5 for four notes, and size 17 for four notes.  Is this a dumb idea?

  Thanks,
  Paul Mulik
  Joplin MO  
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