[pianotech] Restringing at Lower Tension

[Encore Pianos]

Mr. Bill:

This has potential to be a sticky wicket with your customer, your long time
trusting relationship with him notwithstanding.  He will be spending many
thousands of dollars to achieve a particular result, which may or may not
disappoint him.   It's 50 -50 as I can see it.  Even though it is his choice
you can still get blamed - you should have known enough to protect me from
myself, although he won't think of it quite in those terms.  Or some people
might think it is a bad rebuilding job on your part, and how would they know
anyway?

As David points out below, there are some potential problem areas.  Here's
my suggestion:  Since the piano is to be rebuilt anyway, ask him to allow
you to restring several notes at the stepped down wire size.  The problem
areas are the best choice, say the last plain wire in the low tenor where
the tensions are falling off anyway and would be most likely to develop
tonal warts from this change, and in the upper treble area of which David
speaks.  Space 2 or 3 notes in between.  

The advantage of this method is that you are only changing one thing, the
wire sizes.  No downbearing changes or any of the other vagaries that come
with pulling a plate and putting it back in.  No new hammers and the tonal
changes they bring.  The new wire will sound sweeter, but will it otherwise
be diminished in tone color by the lower tension?  He'll pay you for your
time, and it's as close to apples to apples as we can get.  If he decides to
go ahead then, the onus is fully on him and your back is covered.  If he
does not like it, you saved him thousands of dollars and disappointment, and
your relationship is preserved.  

Will

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 10:31 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Restringing at Lower Tension

No problem in theory, though I'm not sure what it will sound like.  Some
loss of power certainly but the tone would probably by a bit warmer, more
fundamental and weaker upper partials.  That might be a problem in the
treble and a very light set of hammers at the upper end would be important
to minimize hammer/string contact time.  When I spreadsheet it the tensions
drop to the mid 140 lb range through most of the tenor and low treble.  In
the upper treble where Steinway tends to drop anyway it drops to the mid 120
lb region.  You'd have to lower the bass scaling as well which you could do
by dropping the wrap dimensions some (I tried .002 - .004" quickly and that
seemed ok) and the core dimension if necessary but a good bass scaler who
can put it all together with the rest would be helpful.    I've often
wondered about this, whether on an old and weakened soundboard dropping the
tensions won't keep things more in balance--well, it would keep things more
in balance but what the tonal result would be I'm not sure.  The problem
here might be that if the impedance characteristics of the soundboard are
too high for the lowered string scale you'll have a mismatch and the sound
will be weak.  If the board is the original one and the impedance
characteristics are lower by virtue of age and diminished crown then who
knows, might be ok.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of William Ballard
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 6:37 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Restringing at Lower Tension

Greetings from a long-time wayfarer.

One of my customers (with nine pianos, most of whom have work by me) has a
1892 Stwy AI which he would like now to restring with a new block (plus new
action). He has a notion (deserving to be tested) that if the stringing
scale is stepped down a wire size (read: rescale entirely, at lower
tension), that this will send the sound of the piano further in the
direction of the "19th Century". ie., The onset of the sound will be
slightly delayed (IOW, gentler bloom). I've explained to him that the place
to adjust bloom is with the proper choice and voicing of hammers. He
realizes that lower string mass means lower volume, and although I don't
know what size room the piano will end up in, I'm sure this is part of his
thinking.

A few more details to get the collective wisdom off and bubbling:

1.) The original board is fine (no weak regions, downbearing is there along
with front bearing at the bridge). This will be the foundation for this 19th
Century sound. But the rescaling will be stringing alone; the tenor bridge
and all speaking lengths will not be changed.

2.) I'm turning the action into a high Strike/Balance Ratio action with
light hammers on 15.75 knuckle-mounting distance shanks. There are plenty of
choices for light hammers. This will preserve the 19th Century feel.

His instincts about pianos are usually right on. (It's me who's getting used
to the idea of turning a Stwy A into a square grand.)

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.
wbps at vermontel.net

"I'll play it and tell you what it is later...."
     ...........Miles Davis
+++++++++++++++++++++