Restringing J Mayer Grand

[Tom Cole]

Eliot,

You do have a mess there. It looks like you'll have to measure all the
speaking lengths, first of all. I suppose you have already checked for
wire size markings on the plate and bridge cap. It might be helpful to
know at least some of the diameters - smallest plain wire, largest plain
wire, smallest wound string, largest wound string - to help determine
what kind of total tension was on that piano. Is there any slave labor
available in your house?

Before I did anything, I would talk to someone who has experience
rescaling pianos to get an idea of how to proceed. I can recommend Dave
Sanderson in Massachussets if you don't know of anyone. Dave makes great
bass strings and I'm sure his father, Al, could come up with a new scale
that would be better than original.

Good luck.

Tom


Eliot Lee wrote:
> 
> Dear List,
> 
>         I have a 1890 J Mayer 7' grand.  It is out of Munich.  Pierce
> doesn't have any serial numbers listed.  I would like to find out when it
> was made.
> 
>         Some guy removed all the strings w/o properly measuring them, so I
> have a bundle of wire which I would like to aviod measuring each one of.
> 
>         Where can I find a restringing guide for it?  John Travis mostly
> gave guides for american pianos in his book.
> 
>         Would a scale stringing program be more sensible?  IF so which one
> is recommended.  It has the same mess with the bass strings, but those I
> can distinguish by the diameter somewhat.
> 
>         Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Eliot Lee

-- 
Thomas A. Cole RPT
Santa Cruz, CA