Wound Trichords

[Sarah Fox]

Hi Ron,

I'm one of those "WHY" folks and have been for some time.  All I've heard in
response is "BECAUSE."  Sometimes I hear as much as, "because it's hard
enough to get two of them wrapped buggers to get along, but three is almost
impossible."  Then I consider my own piano, a 1933 "D" clone, in which I
have 7 monochords, 4 bichords, and 9 wound trichords.  IMO, the trichord
notes sound pretty good.  But then again, they seem to be well made and in
pretty good shape.  I have no trouble tuning them, and they get along just
fine with each other.  (I've also heard that it's hard to wind a good string
that small, so I'm apprehensive about replacing any of these wound trichord
strings that seem to get along so well.)

But at long last,  after all this confusion,  I see the following
argument... yours...

> Trichords and Bichords at the lower end of the long bridge are a work
> around for breaking too low.

... and then the lightbulb goes on!

The wound trichords in my piano are on the upper end of the bass bridge, not
at the lower end of the long bridge.  I have nothing but steel above the
tenor break.  I think the same is true of the "D?"

You suggest that "if Chickering were given the option of having his time
over again, in 2004 he would probably have opted to use bichords, using a
core wire about two half gauges smaller than the last plain wire, with a
speaking length of between 12% to 14% shorter than the last plain wire
speaking length and wound with a 0.2 mm copper wrap."  On my piano, the
speaking lengths of the upper end of the bass bridge get "squeezed" just a
bit for the last several notes, and then there's a jump in speaking length
on the first plain wire on the long bridge.  The last wound trichord on the
bass bridge is about 17% shorter (1450 mm) than the first plain wire on the
long bridge (1745 mm).  It is a 1.04 mm wire with a .25mm Cu winding,
compared to the 1.14 mm dia plain wire.  (Sorry, I don't have the gauge
equivalents at hand.)  So perhaps I might have a bit more string mass than
would be considered optimal??

Anyway, yes, I can see how putting wound trichords on the lower end of the
long bridge could be a problem!  I didn't realize that was done.  Is that
the practice that has technicians cursing wound trichords?  (... besides
that it seems to be popular to curse them, that is!)

Thanks for your cogent explanation!

Peace,
Sarah