[CAUT] flatwound bass strings

[Laurence Libin]

Alpheus Babcock (Boston) used flat-wound bass strings in the 1820s; a lot of 
the original strings survive on his extant square pianos.

Laurence Libin



----- Original Message ----- 
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