[CAUT] Wire Stretch, was Hardness of termination vs string breakage

[Fred Sturm]

On Apr 27, 2007, at 9:09 AM, Jeff Tanner wrote:

> I'm no physicist.  But it just seems like plain wire keeps on and  
> keeps on stretching over the years.
>
> Jeff

Hi Jeff,
	On the issue of stabilizing over time (not just responding to  
humidity change and whatnot), it may have to do, again, with low  
tension. The tension is causing stretch (whatever the physical/ 
metallurgical explanation might be for it), very slowly, much more  
slowly than a string at higher tension. You can often get a string to  
stabilize very quickly by giving it a tuning to, say, 100 cents sharp  
and leaving it 24 hours or so. Then tune to pitch, and the string  
will behave pretty much like its neighbors, which might be 50 years old.
	So that low tension string just continues to stretch for years and  
years because it has never had a chance to "get it out of its system"  
once and for all <G>.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



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