[CAUT] flatwound bass strings

[Euphonious Thumpe]

Why stiffer? Seems to me that with the absence of the upper and lower arc in the cross section, LESS stiffness (more wag) would be the result.


Euphonious Thumpe
 

________________________________
 From: Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: caut at ptg.org 
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] flatwound bass strings
  
On 5/11/2012 11:26 PM, Mark Schecter wrote:
> Don't know the purpose in a piano. But, on an electric bass, the flat
> wound strings are evidently stiffer, and as a result, produce fewer
> higher harmonics and less of them. They sound less bright and clear.
> 
> How do the sound in a piano?
> 
> ~Mark Schecter

Stiffer, I could see, but that would mean more higher harmonics and less fundamental, wouldn't it? Getting rid of that 0.063", or 0.065" (whatever) tent peg core wire in favor of starting with 0.051" with a good rescaling makes a worthwhile and significant improvement in the strength of the low partials and lessening of noise in the upper. At least in a piano.


> On May 11, 2012, at 9:00 PM, Bob Hull <hullfam5 at yahoo.com
> <mailto:hullfam5 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
> 
>> What is the purpose of the ribbon wire or flat wound bass strings? Is
>> it to help the winding grip the core wire better? What is the tonal
>> difference?

I thought it was to minimize the "skreek, skreek" of finger tip callouses sliding on the windings, or maybe for smooth bottlenecking. I don't know of any rationale for piano use, except maybe for "prepared" piano, which isn't piano use.
Ron N
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