[pianotech] Bass String Length Mismatch Tuning Trouble

[David Love]

Some other comments, did you check to see if the slow roll isn't coming from
one of the pair?  Mismatched strings do happen even under the best
circumstances.  I just replaced 4 pairs of bichords on a new Hamburg
Steinway A because they were mismatched (under warranty still).  They
measured the same yet had some problem.  Perhaps it's in the uneven
tensioning of the wrap when the strings are made.  However, the problem was
audible in one of the strings more than the other on most pairs.  One string
had some falseness to it.  One thing I don't like that much on your set is
the length of the unwrapped portion.  It appears to be quite long at the
agraffe side.  Can't really tell exactly but it's more bare wire than I
would want.  Even so, I don't think that would likely cause a mismatch in
and of itself.

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 7:09 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Bass String Length Mismatch Tuning Trouble

The unequal windings are not the source of the tuning problems.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 3:49 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Bass String Length Mismatch Tuning Trouble

I don't have much experience with un-equal length bass string unisons that
can't be tuned beatless being fixed with new equal-length strings. Has
anyone done this, and can anyone offer an experienced opinion on whether
lengths of a couple millimeters difference in the wrapped speaking length in
a pair of unisons would commonly present tuning problems? Needless to say (I
think?), I found all the bicord pairs in the picture below to be impossible
to tune beatless - the best I could do was leave most of 'em with slow roll.
A few were a fair bit worse. The wrap terminations are at the same position
(equal distant from speaking bridge pins) at the bridge end, thus rendering
unequal wrapped speaking lengths.

The work on this Baldwin F blew me away - it was "rebuilt" by a company that
is quite arguably the most respected in my area (or at least best known
because of brand affiliation).

If you ordered a set of strings, installed them and saw this, wouldn't you
send the back to the string maker (after checking your measurements again to
make sure you didn't provide bogus data)?

Terry Farrell