[pianotech] restringing at lower tension

[Joseph Garrett]

William Ballard asked/said: "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,
First, the imbalance, (tonally), of a square grand is achieved with bad
design, fyi.<G> 
In my opinion, your client is mostly right. Dropping the wire size one half
wire size would, indeed make the piano have less "edge", because the
tension would be lower, hence less higher harmonics being present. To drop
it a full wire size would be a problem, I think, as the tension would not
allow for good tuning stabiliy, (think Yamaha GH1, at the break area).
Also, the Inharmonicity would not be where I'd want it. Along with all of
that, the wound strings would need to be changed in relation to the tension
drop percentage in the plain wire. The most compelling reason for NOT doing
all of that is this: The piano was designed in the era of a more genteel
listening population. Yes, they were more sensative to "harsh" sounding
things, (including pianos<G>). However, my experience with that model of
Steinway is that the sound is very nice. The only short comings I can think
of, would be the action needs improving and there needed to be 3 more notes
on the top, (which the A III design, took care of.<G>) My advise would be
to leave it alone. But, the client is always right.....maybe.<G> If the
client does not like the sound, after you have done all of that, it is
still possible to re-do it back to the original, (slight scale corrections
needed in my opinion<G>), scale dimensions.
That's my take on it.
Regards,
Joe


Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
Captain of the Tool Police
Squares R I