High treble string breakage

[John Delacour]

At 9:50 06.09.95, John Musselwhite wrote:

|: Out of curiosity, which Kawais do you have with "very high tension scales"?
|: While the "D" series KGs have a relatively (for Kawai) high tension of 19-21
|: tons, the GS series comes in around 17 tons according to the specs. Neither
|: of those seem to be "very high" and as far as I'm aware, Kawai is known for
|: their low tension scales.

This would seem to figure.  The older KGs especially were very stiff in
every way and I guess this was due to high tension among other things.  The
complete rescaling of the KG range following the introduction of the GS
range led to a huge improvement in the tone of the KGs.  The revision was
radical, involving a completely new design of plate.

Whereas the GS range has "normal" tensions in the bass, by which I mean say
270 lbs on the highest single and some 200 lbs through the bichords, the
RXA hand-built 6'6" grand uses far higher tension and is a wonderful
instrument in every way.  Whether the piano relies on this scaling for its
overall tone I am not sure.  Just for fun I changed the top two bichords
making strings for a tension of about 190 lbs.  Unless you are listening
for it you would not tell the difference except that the lower tension
eliminates one or two zings and clarifies the tone.

I can't think of a single good piano that benefits from a high tension bass
scale.

        JD