Greetings,
I wrote:
> It is possible to lower a string, too.
> A steel rod with a saw kerf in the side near the end, wide enough to
fit
> over the string, can be used to put a slight kink in the string downward. >>
Joe asks:
>>Whoa, if you can do that bringing the string up, why not down also?
It can, but I prefer to level the strings by straightening the low
strings upward, first, if possible. It is quicker and easier than bending them
down, and I have always thought that strings that left the termination point in
as straight a line as possible would have the least amount of lateral (bridge)
or vertical (agraffe)directed restorative force in them. It seems that if
there is a favored direction sideways at the bridge, and downward at the
agraffe, they would work in opposition to one another and the string would have a
less organized mode of vibration. (lotta technical sounding words to say that I
think the unrelieved bends in the wire might confuse the string. Am I the only
one here that suspects that pianos have minds in them?)
This may be my imagination, but it seems that there is more sustain in
the string after I have removed the slight curvatures in the speaking length
between the bridge and the agraffe.
The slight bend to lower a wire is, in theory, going to distort the
wire's most natural path of vibration, but I haven't noticed it in a measurable
way.
Hell, most of what I do is completely fettered in superstition and
voodoo, so only a fool would follow this advice without testing it for themselves!!
Every time one of my ideas get proven wrong means one more right thing I
then have at my disposal.
Regards,
Ed Foote
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