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Hey Guys,

Has anyone ever come across, or used a brand of piano wire called New Octave Globle? If so, what was you're opinion of it? I do not want to come across as advertising, or dogging, any particular brand names, but it is the brand i selected for my piano, and i'm interested in what the pros have to say.

Thanks,
Mike

I am curious what made you choose this brand. It is not one of the better known ones.

I think it is International Piano Supply's house brand. It is probably something else rebranded. After all, there are not that many actual wire manufacturers out there.

Bingo... International piano supply it is. The salesman showed me side by side comparisons with Roslau, as far as appearance. He went on, using words like elongation, stability, blah, blah. It was inexpensive. The real question i have is, as far as the scaling software is concerned, can i assume that it has the same properties as Roslau brand wire?

Thanks,
Mike

No. You can't assume.

If you have to make a choice for the the scaling program, Roslau Red is their cheap stuff. If the program makes no distinction between the grades of wire, it most likely makes no difference to the scaling program so using Roslau as the default is ok. This is because the scaling program bases it's scale on the percent of breaking strength. The tension of the wire in comparision to the point that it will break is what creates the inharmonicity readings. You wouldn't choose Pure Sound which has low breaking strength.

Keith,

Thanks for the input. The tension is what i'm concerned with. I've spoken with the salesman again, and i don't think he knows the particular properties of this brand, so i thought i'd take a shot, and ask the forum. The person who is helping me with the scaling set the program up, and i am just filling in the blanks {I don't want anyone to get the idea that i'm skilled enough to set up and use the software} I don't think he's heard of this particular brand, so for the purpose of figuring it's strength, as far as tension, i wanted to know if anyone out there in forumland would happen to know.

Thanks again,

Mike

You might have to guess. At least that is different from assuming.

A professional would never use any kind of no-name or house brand wire. You just don't know its properties and characteristics and chances are no one will be wiling or able to give you specs. Who knows where it was made and by whom, to what specs and tolerances?

Stringing a piano is a job that should last for years and years. It is penny wise and pound foolish to save a few dollars on materials in such a very labor intensive job.

Three weeks ago you started a thread :Breathing new life" showing your project and the piano which you had almost finished putting new strings on. Now you start a thread about scaling and wire brands. That is definitely putting the cart before the horse. It sounds like you are in over your head.

Supply,

What you say about a professional choosing a wire type makes sense. I didn't realize that there were so many variables. To take what you said about 3 weeks ago almost having the piano strung a step further... It is now completly strung, before i realized that i may have to do it over. As far as being in over my head, i enjoy it to much for that, if it was for a customer that had paid me {Which doesn't happen}, or if my livlyhood were somehow depended on it, then yes... i could see how it could seem like a disaster. This is something that i've really taken a shine to. As i've also stated in the past, i'm buying old clunkers on ebay, just to work on them. You don't do that unless you enjoy it. I'd be lying if i said that making up 191 more loops is fun, but doing it right, and ending up with a hundred year old piano that is in exellent condition is what it's all about. Also, the wire was purchased after the salesman ran his pitch about how it is superior in every way to Roslau, stated that it is electro-plated, giving it more shine, that it resists elongation, and stablizes sooner. Is any of that true? beats me... but it sounded good. Point is, i didn't buy it because it was cheaper, i really believed i was purchasing something superior.

Thanks,
Mike

I would not worry about it. It is a cheap birdcage upright. The wire will not matter much.

It WAS a cheap birdcage upright

Now it's becoming a beautiful antique.
When i'm done with it i'll start on the steinway i just picked up. I'll keep you posted

BDB you are probably right, but personally I wouldn't even string a free brdcage with electroplated wire...

But hey - go for it!

What are the disadvantages of electro-plated wire?

One important question to be asked could be:

"If this no-name wire is so superior to well-known name brands, then why is it not used on Steinway, Fazioli, Bechstein, Grotrian, Sauter, Blüthner, Bösendorfer, Yamaha, Förster, Kawai, Schimmel, Walter, Seiler, Steingraeber, and all other of the top 50 piano makes worldwide?"

I doubt it is plated. Plating would flake off right away. Like I said, it is probably somebody else's wire rebranded, and the salesperson did not bother to get the manufacturer's spec sheets.

Supply,

If what DBD says is correct, maybe it is used on some of the pianos mentioned. I wouldn't know, you should though. BTW, Please continue with you're reasons regarding the disavantages of electro-plated wire. I purchased pounds of the wire, and if in fact it is inferior, i'll discontinue using it.

Thanks,

Mike

Tin-plated wire used to sold for pianos in the tropics, but I don't believe anyone ever thought is was any better than unplated. Haven't seen that offered for sale in awhile. Wanamaker's in Philadelphia used to string their pianos with gold-plated wire, including the bass strings.

There is a topic/thread "piano wires" on this site where some techs from Hungary have evaluated a number of brands of wire by comparing them side by side on a Steinway. They rated Suzuki and Mapes as top. New Octave also rated well. Roslau was OK but in their opinion not as good as Suzuki and Mapes.
BTW the piano looks good! I notice it is oblique strung which was a clever way of getting some of the benefits of overstringing without it actually being overstrung.
Keep up the good work!

pianokiwi,

Thank you for you're input.

Mike

Hello,

I am just back from an intensive training on new action installation with renner, and some work outside my town.

I dont know that wire brand here most if not all techs use Roslau (the blue quality, the red one is only less consistent with the diameters for what I know, it is the wire produced when the diamantyed tools have to be replaced, just befor they are - I've benn said)

In germany everything is made in view of the ISO normalisation, so if you have a cheap product it correspond with some normalized less precise measurment tolerance or breaking strain, or whatever.

I have seen very shiny wire used and a concert grand Gaveau from the 50 's, it sounded awful (the wire wounded awful) I only suspected that it was in cause as I did not have the opportunity to change some.

I Was said it was cheap grade of wire coming from England.

Don't now much more about it.

Very curious to see the findings of those Hungarian techs.

I've been wondering if the Susuki grade was not more suiteable for older instruments, I never was able to obtain breaking stain data for that wire.
Mapes seems to be highest breaking strain than Roslau.

To me roslau is the first choice, but this is easy to understand. It is indeed used in all prestigious brands, Japanese instruments being apart.

Inhamronicity does not relate to braeking strain directly, it relate with the softness of the metal.

A similar metal and a similar diameter will lend to the same tension, what is most wanted is to have enough force within the wire so its mechanical propreties are optimum , above 40 % BS is minimum, above 60 and before 80% is better, not really possible at the break most of the time)
THe BS is lowered 20 or 25 from its real point before any computation so 80 % mean 80 % of the minored value.

Best regards