String Levelling

[Bill Ballard]

>> From: Bill Ballard <yardbird@sover.net>
>>I used to do this leveling with a dial indicator
>> (--boy did I ever mispend my youth!)
>
>Do strings stay in level. If not how do they go.?
>
>Richard Moody

I can answer that questrion on the basis of pages upon pages of recorded
dial indicator readings on many painos, and frequent revisits to each piano
(I gues that's what you might have inferred). I only read strings heights
and only paid attention to relative heights within the  strings on each
note.

I would assume that strings would get knocked in the same direction as the
hammer  doing the knocking (upwards in a grand).  But simply to come across
a piano in desparate need of servicing, all we can observe is the relative
level within notes. We have no base lines, no benchmarks to go on.

On Mon, 6 Apr, "Richard Moody" <remoody@easnet.net> wrote:
>So then do you mean we (oops that damn word again) are bending piano
>strings to make up for lousey agraffes? And  it should not be a problem in
>uprights, or in the pressure bar section?

I've never believed that theory. I can't believe that properly located
aggraphe holes are so  great a challenege that every piano factory should
be falling flat on its face trying to successfully produce these critical
doodads. At least that what we have to conclude when we insist on blaming
the undeniable pervasiveness of unlevel strings on poorly drilled aggraphe
holes. Especially when the much more obvious answer is in the curling
nature of piano wire itself.

Take an aggraphe whose holes you've certified (with the fanciest means
available) in a stright line which is square to the axis of the root (stem,
whatever). Install it, and string up some fresh wire through it. Then level
the strings just as they leave the aggraphe heading into the speaking
length. Then, bring your hammer up to see how well that level beginning
holds up down at the strike point. I haven't tried this, but I wouldn't
expect to find level strings down there. Now repeat the exact same
experiment, this time using an aggraphe with certifiably cock-eyed holes.
What would lead you to expect anything different?

> And  it should not be a problem in
>uprights, or in the pressure bar section?

Dels' valuable comments about the optimum design of string terminations
aside, it's independant the kind of termniation or whether the string path
is horizontal or vertical. The problem lies in the curvature of the wire.
Yes I have heard it and corrected it in uprights. It's alot easier there
because the vertical action doesn't shift at the press of a pedal.

On Mon, 06 Apr 1998,  nhunt@jagat.com (Newton Hunt) wrote:
>Strings do NOT stay level.  If you level a string and the tune it it
>will go out of level again.  So you level, tune, level, tune, etc.,
>until tune and level remain steady.
>
>It is not unlike pitch raising.

I won't argue with your expoerience Newton, just say that mine is
different. If in a regulation/voicing I tune the piano folowing the open
string work, then later duriung the accupuncture, should I hear something
like an open string and should I check it, it rarely is one.   Based on
this observation, I would assume that the bend in the wire which
accomplsihes the string leveling occupies far more space than that 0.1 mm
which moves through the string termination during a tuning at pitch.

Bill Ballard, RPT
New Hampshire Chapter, PTG

"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture"
         Steve Martin