Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Paging Mr. Fandrich, and any other scale design experts

I know. I wrote that humorous sentence with fear and trepidation hoping no one would take me seriously. Living dangerously for the purpose of being funny ain't all it's cracked up to be.

I Do like that hexagonal core wire. (See there I go again!)

If adjusted all at once.If done gradually over time the adjustment would not be noticed.

But, but... the GRIP!!!

If I had just one more ounce of sarcasm in me, I'd use those two words in the same sentence again, and find a way to tie in a Lester spinet...

Hex core wire?
Well, this is where opinions diverge. Did you know that Steingraeber verticals (among other prestigious brands with amazing sounding basses) use hex core wire? It is really hard to find fault with those instruments...

Often, it depends mostly on how it is used, not what is used.

Let's see if I can usher in the Apocalypse...

Oxrctumpw zppw rmpqm#yxp vuyt dbnwpq cn q Kqbcmt wpcytq...................................vrmwq!

Let's see if I can usher in the Apocalypse...

Oxrctumpw zppw rmpqm#yxp vuyt dbnwpq cn q Kqbcmt wpcytq...................................vrmwq!

I tried to comment on your earlier post but something happened to my computer. I may have to replace the operating system now...thanks a lot!

ddf

OMG! Is that a Reverse Well?

OMG! Is that a Reverse Well?

It's clockwise -- it's a Forward Well.

ddf

Nah, It's a Reverse Well north of the equator.

You mean from the inside looking out. Can you do that from a black hole?

ddf

PS. I think we lost the topic back there a ways.

What you say is true with plain steel strings; changing the diameter of a string changes the tension but not the "percentage of breaking strength."

Wrapped strings, however, are a different case. You can change the tension on the string by changing the diameter of the wrap—i.e., the overall diameter of the string—without changing the diameter of the core wire. The tension on the core wire is determined combined mass of the core wire and the wrap wire but the percentage of breaking strength is determined by the diameter of the core alone. There are more than a few pianos out there with at least a few strings scaled such that the wire is tensioned well above 60% of the wires breaking strength.

You are right; a "brutal" player can break strings on just about any piano. Usually, though, these pianists also break strings in the treble section of the piano. Unfortunately it has been my experience that it is just about impossible to turn one of these brutal players into a more subtle, musical player. About the only thing that sometimes works is to make the player—I hesitate to call them “pianists”—financially responsible for the strings he/she breaks.

Even if the problem is directly traceable to the piano player more break-resistant strings can be designed. At least one manufacturer--Baldwin--has had two different scales for the bass strings of certain models of piano that often ended up in institutions where pianos had to endure long hours of hard playing. The "heavy-duty" strings were designed around larger diameter core wire.

The suggestion is also made that the hammers might be too heavy and/or too hard. And this may well be the case. But, again based on my experience, it will do little good to voice the hammers down; these players will just hit the keys ever harder to satisfy some misplaced need for “power” at all cost. Sometimes amplifying the piano and aiming monitor speakers directly back at the player helps particularly if the problem is simply that the player has damaged his/her hearing through years of excessively hard and loud playing.

ddf