As I have shown, this lower tension thing... which is really lower % of breaking strength (which in itself turns out to be a rather dubious term in practice) doesnt really account for the large differences / uneveness in pitch change through out the scale. Tho no doubt it plays what can be called a significant roll. I'm working on a combination of a basic scaling spreadsheet and the deflection / tension changes spreadsheet along with this last bit about pin angles and strings climbing them (which I am glad to see finnally acknowledged) to show the isolated effect of such changes on real scales. I think one will see a suprising picture develop, and one that very much deviates from what we observe. Which means that other quite significant forces (for not to say dominant) are at work, which to some degree must counter act and to some degree work in concert these weve been discussing. I dont know of any data at all that supports the claim that scales designed with more equal tension through the piano will tend to go out of tune more evenly. Is this casual observation based or can you point me to some specific study ? Cheers RicB The lower the tension in a given string the greater the change in pitch for a given change in length. Since the lowest tension tends to be in the low tenor, that is where the largest change in pitch generally is. The bass section is usually the highest string tension and therefore changes the least. On many pianos the scale tensions also drop in the upper treble. Scales that are designed with more equal tension through the piano will tend to go out of tune more evenly. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com
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