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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello list,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>After measuring downbearing at several points and
lowering the string tension as Reblitz recommends, </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>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.</FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So I'm wondering which is the case:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>or B: the piano really came out of the
factory like this.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Paul Mulik</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joplin MO </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>