Twangy pianos + stringing

[Ron Nossaman]

>  My oh my......  This is getting interesting. When I wrote my orignal
>post, I promise that I had no idea that what I was posting was so
>controversial.  But, as they say, "Inn for a penny, in for a pound."  I
>was asked for sources...  I found some more.    In
>Mr. John W. Travis'
>"A Guide to Restringing," 2nd Edition, on page 29:    "....Before you
>put too much tension on the strings, see that they are spaced as nearly
>perfect as possible, and as you intend to leave them. This takes a
>little more time, but will save you many headaches, such as having to
>let the tension down again before you can move the wire, or forcing the
>wire by TWISTING AND ROLLING IT, THUS CAUSING FALSE BEATS WHICH REMAIN
>WITH THE PIANO FROM THEN ON..."
>In Mr. Arthur A. Reblitz'  "Piano  Servicing, Tuning  & Rebuilding", 2nd
>Edition, on page 115:  "Other causes of false beats, ringing, or
>jangling noises in the treble strings are TWISTS, bends kinks, heavy
>rust spots, or RAISING THE STRING TOO FAR ABOVE THE CORRECT PITCH DURING
>TUNING, WHICH CAUSES THE WIRE TO STRETCH SO FAR THAT IT BECOMES
>DEFORMED."                                                Again, I am by
>no means stating, implying or anything else, that the string alone is
>the source of all false beats.  I am only stating that avoiding twists
>and over pulling as much as humanly possible can only improve things.
>And, in my original post, I proposed that on certain economy pianos
>twisting and over pulling may or may not have been used for the sake of
>efficiency.  -Joe          

Hi Joe,
And I promise you, what you said isn't necessarily controversial. Quite the
contrary. It's usually accepted as mainstream gospel without question, and
in spite of any evidence to the contrary. It's just that I must take
exception to stated generally accepted "facts" that are contrary to my
experience and observable phenomena. Call it a personality flaw (one of
many), and I assure you there's nothing personal here (honest), but I have
an unreasonable fondness for a universe that adheres to rational,
observable, and predictable cause and effect relationships. Published and
anecdotal information that twisting strings causes false beats is only
worth it's repeatability in an actual piano, as far as I'm concerned. If I
can't reproduce the result by reproducing the conditions that are supposed
to produce that result, I can't realistically accept the published or
purported "fact" as fact, regardless of how well known and well thought of
the original author was, or is. I'm sorry, but I'm going to insist on
making an attempt to decide for myself what is and isn't true and factual
based on logic and observable phenomena, and I see no evidence in actual
pianos that twisting strings causes false beats. I suppose it's possible
that I have happened to have gotten lucky with several thousand exceptions
in a row, but I can't help but doubt that theory. I'm just not that lucky
or I'd be too rich to be servicing pianos in the first place. Have you
tried it for yourself? Not being rich, but twisting strings. It's an easy
enough trial experiment, and easily enough reversible if the resultant
false beat is too dreadful to tolerate. Twist a few strings and see what
happens for yourself. In my experience, it's not only tolerable, it's not
detectable unless taken to extremes. Even taken to extremes, the result is
a sort of fuzzy distortion rather than a false beat, but that's an
judgement based on my impression rather than a fact.

I can certainly agree wholeheartedly, however that on certain economy
pianos, twisting and over pulling of strings may or may not have been used
for the sake of efficiency. I just can't honestly connect that with the
likelihood of false beats. 

That's where I am until information to the contrary comes along.

Regards, 
Ron N