stretching wire -- an anecdotal analysis

[John Delacour]

At 00:07 -0500 18/4/08, kurt baxter wrote:

>Even so, that pitch drop  has to come from SOMEWHERE.
>I have heard the same statement that wire "creeping" stretch is 
>physically impossible, and it seems unlikely that the physicists are 
>massive wrong on this..
>
>here is one example of a frustrated physicist ranting about the 
>belief of piano tuners: 
><http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200204/2002.04.02.08.html>http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200204/2002.04.02.08.html

Since when was Craig Brougher a "frustrated physicist"?!  He's just a 
vocal mender of player pianos.

>But still, my question stands: on a otherwise perfectly settled, 
>broken in piano, whydoes a replacement new string drop and drop and 
>drop? Where is it all coming from?
>
>Clearly, someone is missing something.

At 21:13 +0100 13/4/08, John Delacour wrote:
Subject: Re: stretching wire -- a preliminary test

>When plucked about 24 hours later a fall in the pitch of the note of 
>4 or 5 cents was noted.
>
>48 hours later the note is 9 or 10 cents flat.

When tested after 4 days the note was still about 10 cents flat with 
no detectable further extension.  If I were to bring it to pitch I 
would expect it over the following two or three days to fall a few 
cents in pitch and then stabilize again.

JD