Broadwood Bass string

[John Delacour]

At 7:47 pm -0400 17/3/07, Carlos Ralon wrote:

>I am replacing a low single missing bass string on a 1865 Broadwood 
>Grand. WhyÊdid they wrap felt aroundÊthe winding as it goes overÊthe 
>bridge?  The original winding goes all the way to the twist for the 
>pitch pin loop.  I have measured and have had the replacement string 
>duplicated.ÊOnly the singles have this felt, but all the doubles 
>still had the winding to the twist. ÊShould I install it the same 
>way?

Yes.  Why would you want the replacement string to sound different 
from the others?  The cloth tube affects the admittance at the bridge 
and the bridge pins.  The copper is whipped into the eye at one end 
and soldered to the wire at the wrestplank end.  This was done by 
Broadwood before flattening became common practice.  French makers 
roughened the core with a file all the way along and used a very 
acute conical swaging at the wrestplank end if the copper was not 
whipped in.  They continued to do this long after other makers had 
switched to flattening.

JD