<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Certainly different folks will get different mileage from various approaches, but I would respectfully beg to differ with your conclusion: "This is approaching a level of<BR>> design work that is just not practical for a one-off project."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>The very first piano I ever restrung, came to me with no strings. I had a string scale developed for me by David Sanderson. The piano was an old Estey microgrand which had plain wire unisons (or at least tri-cords) through to the end of the long bridge. David asked me if I would like to convert some of the presumed plain wire tricords to wound bicords, as that change would improve the scale. I said sure. So we did. I didn't recap - I think I just used the outer bridge pins and left the middle ones unused. I did have to remove/add a couple hitch pins - but even the first time with it, I don't think it took me but 20 minutes or so. And that's all there was to it. IMHO, VERY practical for a one-off project - and in this case, a fairly low-budget affair.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Now if you already have a set of new bass strings, I realize that may affect the practical aspects of converting low tenor plain wires to wound, but then again, I would sure recommend looking at the scaling of those bass strings - sounds like some clown already did some "work" to this piano - I would think a close look at the scaling of the new strings would be in order anyway - you may find that things are in a pretty sorry state with them anyway.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>FWIW, I made more money 10 years ago when I was working as a hydrogeologist modeling groundwater contaminant transport. I <EM><STRONG>chose </STRONG></EM>to enter the piano technician profession. I wanted to be creative. I wanted to create beautiful things. I guess that's a large part of why I am generally very open to making changes in piano design if it can make a more beautiful product.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>>I probably would not.  Although, I would analyze the existing scale, with<BR>> the existing replacement strings.  If I felt I could substantially improve<BR>> upon them, I might, but this would probably mean discarding the existing<BR>> bass strings entirely.  If I were in the project to make money, I would go<BR>> with what I had.  If you are in it for your own edification, by all means,<BR>> analyze and modify away.<BR>> <BR>> It wasn't entirely clear if the original scale included wound strings on<BR>> the treble bridge, only that there was a replacement set of wound strings. <BR>> To add wound strings where there had previously been plain wire, the treble<BR>> bridge would have to be at least partially recapped and repinned, not to<BR>> mention relocating and adding hitch pins.  This is approaching a level of<BR>> design work that is just not practical for a one-off project.<BR>> <BR>> Frank Emerson<BR>> </FONT><A href="mailto:pianoguru@earthlink.net"><FONT face=Arial size=2>pianoguru@earthlink.net</FONT></A></BODY></HTML>