Broadwood Bass string

[John Delacour]

At 3:12 pm -0600 19/3/07, Ron Nossaman wrote:

>I can't imagine why anyone would want to. The point is that if these 
>figures are anywhere near correct, directly substituting modern wire 
>for the old Poehlmann isn't likely to put the modern wire all that 
>close to the breaking point.

And my point is that the figures are NOT anywhere near correct and 
that modern wire simply cannot withstand the tensions that Poehlmann 
of the best period allowed makers to use.  In certain commonly 
met-with bass scales, such as that of the BlŸthner Style 7, the 
original top 3 singles (11,12,13) will always break after about 100 
years.  If replacements are provided for these strings to the 
original patterns, they are likely to break on fitting but if not are 
certain to break after 100 hours.  There are other examples such as 
many Schiedmayer scales.

If makers are going to claim certain tensile strengths for their 
wire, let them set up independently monitored tests to validate their 
claims.  Write to R. and ask them to tell you the basis of their 
published (where??!) breaking strains.  I bet you'll have to wait a 
long time for a reply.  I am still waiting after 2 years!

JD