newby questions about scale

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message -----
From: Gerald Posey <poseyviolins@charter.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 4:03 PM
Subject: newby questions about scale


> The thread concerning scales is interesting and started me thinking about
my
> own piano.  Coming form the violin world I realize the importance of
quality
> strings.  The whole job of the violin is to amplify the sound of the
> strings, ergo, good strings = good sound.  Scaling, however seems much
more
> involved than just quality.  It seems to be a re-engineering of sorts.  Is
> it possible to just specify the piano make and string length and order a
set
> of strings that sound better?

   I agree that good strings can improve the sound, but only on an
instrument that already produces a pretty good tone, even with cheap
strings.
Putting great strings on a poor quality instrument seldom improves the tone.
    On a piano, you can change the gauge of wire used for that note, or you
can change the brand of piano wire being used.  But the changes in tone
would be very subtle compared to other operations for improving the tone,
such as new hammers and voicing.
    Yes, re-scaling (and rebuilding) is a type of re-engineering of sorts.
It's finding areas of the piano that can be improved by changing wire
gauges, tension, downbearing, possibly altering the bridges, installing new
soundboard, etc.
    Piano strings don't really come in "sets".  Well, the bass strings can,
but they're custom-made by a string maker
("winder"), who makes them up by referring to the old ones or from a
schedule that has "new, improved" calculations for the gauges of the core
wires and wraps, or windings.   The tenor and treble strings come on reels
of wire of different gauges -- they're not pre-cut to length.  There's no "B
string", "C string", etc.  Different pianos use different sizes of wire for
the same note, depending on the scale design.  There's not
as wide a range of types and quality in piano wire as there is in strings
for violins, cellos, etc.
    Usually restringing livens up the tone of a piano, especially if the old
strings had lost elasticity and were suffering metal fatigue.  The
difference in the bass can be quite dramatic if the old ones had gone dead
or gotten tubby-sounding.  But in the tenor and treble, new strings alone
won't necessarily sound that much better unless other reconditioning
procedures are also done.  It would take quite a discerning ear for someone
to tell that a brand-new piano with lesser-quality music wire had been
restrung with better.        --David Nereson, RPT, Denver