Piano wire quality

[John Delacour]

At 4:42 PM -0500 12/9/01, Erwinspiano@aol.com wrote:

>   Do you think the sound of the plain wire is a significant improvement? If so
>can you provide me with a Name , address, price list etc. I would 
>love to try a batch of something better. Roslau has done a great 
>marketing job on us but the results are lackluster or hey guys Am I 
>the only one who would be interested in better sounding plain wire. 
>Please speak up. A larger order would be more economical to ship.

I get the wire from the supply house Meyne and it had their name on 
it, but they will not tell me who makes it.  I have an idea it is 
possibly the people who make Degen copper wire, but that's only a 
guess.  I'll let you have details tomorrow.  They seem to be a 
friendly firm, though they're not the cheapest, and they do some good 
ranges.

I pay more for this wire than I would for Röslau, but I don't mind 
paying for quality.  After all the cost of the wire for a piano is a 
tiny fraction of the total cost.

I've only recently switched to the Meyne wire and have so far only 
done a full resting on one piano, though I now have three more I 
shall be doing in the next two months.  The piano I did was a 1907 
Schiedmayer upright and it is quite tremendous -- makes a Steinway O 
sound rather silly!  It's difficult to know how much difference the 
wire makes, but certainly this piano now simply sparkles and has such 
depth and warmth and power that I can't remember coming across a 
better-sounding upright, except perhaps the Lipp.  The next job is a 
Lipp upright which sounds good as it is but needs everything doing, 
so we'll see what the Meyne wire does there.

>>I prefer the new wire, but it is not Poehlmann and never will be.  I
>>have spoken to a very old English maker about analysing and
>>remanufacturing Poehlmann wire and he was quite interested in the
>>idea, but other things took precedence and I have not pursued the
>>matter.  As you say, it is possible to analyse the alloy, but that is
>>only a part of the solution.  How the wire is drawn and annealed is
>>just as critical, and a lot of research would be needed to retrieve
>>the lost art of Poehlmann.

One thing I forgot to mention about the old Poehlmann wire.  The old 
timers who used it found that it took a long time to settle and found 
when they changed to Röslau that they could get a piano to stand much 
quicker.  However, that was within living memory and it's quite 
possible Poehlmann were not so clever themselves by then as they had 
been in 1867 +.  However, this suggests a very different molecular 
structure.  I keep some by from old bass strings people send me with 
the aim of getting some tests done one day.


>  > JD this is an idea thats time may have come.  I'd also wonder of 
>the feasability of you making a set of strings for the bluethner I 
>wrrote you about. Would shipping be prohibitive. What do you charge 
>for a set of strings?

I'll work it out in $$ and find out about the shipping.  I'd love to 
make you a set and would give you a nice goodwill discount!  Then you 
acn see what whipping is :-)  The last set I made for America was 
through David Winston and he told me the strings caused much comment, 
especially as they'd never seen whipped ends before.

>
>  > I wonder how we could do some research on finding a better wire 
>supply.  I know that Ari Isaac used japanese wire which he thought 
>was better and would handle higher tension loads which were 
>evidenced by his string scales. I believe he had to  buy a certain 
>quantity to get a decent price. Thats business of course.

Yes, that's one reason I have to pay more.  I used to get the copper 
and steel from one supply house and they gave me very good prices. 
I'm a new customer of Meyne's.

>   >  Ron O and N  ,Del ,John Hartman ,Bob Davis other rebuilders any 
>feedback interest or ideas on this.
>
>       Stirring the pot-------Dale Erwin--
>             Jd thanks for the lengthy and informative post