Rescaling

[Newton Hunt]

Hi David,

THere are several factors one wants to try to balance, tension, inh.,
breaking% and loudness.  I do not like to change the overall tension more
than about 5%, or about one ton, and I prefer lots less.  Here's the
problem, tension and inh go in opposite directions.  Increase the tension
decrease inh but there is a practical limit and when you cannot get those
two to balance ten you need to go to wound strings.  I very frequently put
wound strings in the middle sections of smaller pianos.  I have not
evaluated a "B" so I don't know what I would be seeing and what decisions I
would make.  There is also a practical limit to wound strings moving into
the middle section.  At one point the copper gets so fine it is not
practical to wind with it or inh. gets close to what you want or tension
gets too high.


As for your question, it is possible to choke a piano with too high tension
but there are other considerations like the condition of the board, ribbing,
string tail end lengths which contribute more to "choking" than bass string
tension will.  

These are not simple questions with simple answers and I certainly don't
know all there is to know, by no means, unfortunately.  I do like to try to
make folks believe I do but you can fools some of the people some of the
time...

		Newton

David Love wrote:
> 
> List:
> 
> I have begun having the pianos I'm restringing rescaled (or at least
> recalculated).  I notice, at least with the company doing the calculations
> for me, that they often set the scale with a slightly higher tension.
> Instead of starting with #13, for example, the rescaled instrument will
> start with #13 1/2 and procede through a higher range of gauges, ending 
> with perhaps 21 or 22 instead of 19 or 20 (this happened recently on a 
> Steinway B).  I would like to know what others' experience is in this 
> area. Can a higher tension scale "choke" the board?  When is it preferable > or not preferable?  Are there varying philosophies about scaling or are 
> the pianos I've had rescaled just been wrong?
> 
> David Love
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