Fortepiano Wire (was Re: Brass wire)

[Jeff Tanner]

Thanks Fred,

>    You wrote "the wire broke where it crosses the loop." I'm not sure how to
>interpret that. Do you mean on the tuning pin? Is the wire crossing the coil
>on the pin as it leaves the pin?

No, the loop in my splice I attempted.  The straight portion of the wire
crossing over the loop of the splice broke both times, and both times on
the tuning pin side of the splice.  I was suprised that it broke there.  I
expected that if the splice was going to fail, either the knot would pull
out or the "loops" of the know would fail where they'd been bent.

I suppose perhaps the loops of the splice either "cut" or made a kink in
the straight portion as tension was applied.

It had originally broken where the string leaves the coil, as Blaine
described, while I was raising pitch, and there were some 7 or 8 turns left
on the pin.  So I attempted a splice between the tuning pin and the "nut"
or "capo", using wire carefully unwound from the coil.  This was the wire
which broke both times, so perhaps the coil had weakened the wire enough it
just wouldn't hold up to a splice.

It was just an experiment in a pinch.  I was hoping to avoid a sagging
string during the concert.  I didn't know how much stretching to expect.

Thanks again!
Jeff