High treble string breakage

[John Delacour]

At 18:43 05.09.95, David Porritt wrote:
|: On Tue, 5 Sep 1995, Israel Stein wrote:

|: While I have the strings off I always dress the capo bar and even clean
|: the sounding board as far as I can.  It is a very rewarding job.  My best
|: guess is that this breakage you are fighting now is due to string fatigue,
|: and has nothing to do with whatever problems the piano had when new.

My guess, or rather my observation as a bass string maker, is that modern
wire is no good.

Steinway's scales have not changed but the wire has.  In fact most
Steinways will accommodate the new wire for a while because Steinway scales
are "short" and excessive tensions are not involved, but all the strings
are nearer their elastic limit than they would be if Poehlmann wire were
used.  Sadly Poehlmann wire is no longer available and so the monopoly
supplier can get away with murder.

As a bass string maker I have to make replacement sets for many old German
pianos that used very high tensions such as Schiedmayer, Bluethner,
Grotrian-Steinweg to name the best known.

These pianos were designed with Poehlmann wire as the standard at a time
when there was intense competition between wire makers and when prizes were
awarded at exhibitions for breaking strains that were out of this world.
The amazing thing is that many of these pianos after 90 years have never
had a broken bass string and many of them are only just beginning to get
breakages.

If I make a set of strings for a Bluthner 6'3 piano according to the
original scale, I can guarantee that four strings will break, probably as
they are being fitted and certainly within a year.  Why?  Because I can't
get Poehlmann wire and have to make do with a lousy product made of plough
steel that rusts more in a year than Poehlmann wire will rust in a century,
that is of very variable structure and which has a very poor polish or a
slightly less poor polish depending on the phase of the moon.  The name of
this wire is Ro"slau.

Consequently every string and every set of strings sent to us is subjected
to calculation and certain scales need to be drastically lightened.

This suits me fine, but "Vorsprung durch Technik" is certainly not the
motto of the Stahl und Drahtwek Roeslau, rather "Smelt it cheap and draw it
quick".

        JD

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