> One more quick thought before beginning the holiday. Occasionally, >I'm called upon to do a restringing job. When I do, there are two >things I'm always careful about: 1.) Never leave a twist in any of the >plain wire strings, and, 2.) I do my best to never pull the strings >above their correct tension. 1.) >Twisting plain (or wound) strings increases the amount of tension >they'll take before breaking. Unfortunately, it also makes plain wire >more likely to generate false beats. Is there any evidence that unwound >strings were twisted as a matter of policy in order to decrease the >incidence of string breakage in some of the piano factories? >2.) A string which has been over-tensioned is also more likely to >generate false beats. Might some of the factories have over-tensioned >their pianos in order to reduce the number of factory tunings and >thereby cut costs? Just some theories I've been >nursing for a long time..... I've often felt that so many inexpensive >pianos had so much potential....that they could have been so much >more..... if only some very simple, very easy procedures were applied >during production. What good are "the most advanced scaling" and "the >best materials", if the wire is twisted, damaged by over-tensioning, or, >even kinked? Happy Thanksgiving! -Joe Hi Joe, Now this is interesting. With somewhere around 23 years in this business, this is the first mention I've heard of twisting strings increasing tension tolerance. I'm curious what the source of that tidbit is. If you have an explanation, you have my attention. Also, I'd have to take exception to the idea that twisting plain wire strings detectably increases the incidence of false beats, or any other audible sound production anomaly. I just haven't seen any evidence that indicates that is the case. Again, I'd be interested in your source for this information. Over pulling certainly can damage strings, but you do have well over 1/4 semitone leeway above pitch tension if the tension at pitch isn't designed at significantly over 60% of breaking point. It's certainly possible that factory chippers could damage strings by over pulling, but it's much more likely that the piano's potential was far more damaged during the design, fabrication and assembly stages than in the tuning stage. There seems to be a whole bunch of ways during the production process to mess up what could just as easily have been a nice piano with a little care and adherence to design specs. That's assuming of course that the design was workable in the first place. There's more than a little evidence that this happens with some frequency. Looks like bedtime. Have a good weekend. Regards, Ron N
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