Pianotech

Zeno,

I have long been perplexed by the very problem that you cite.  It seems to me that manufacturers are too "chicken" to really put on some wire that will do the job!  I have spent many years observing scales and found a very few where they were not so "chicken" to do so.

Some of the worst offenders are the Yamaha GH1 with plain and flabby wire down to B2 as well as Steinway Model L, the same:  six unisons of size 18 wire on a "hockey stick" bridge when they could have easily divided those six unisons up to 2 size 18, 2 size 19, 2 size 20 and 2 size 21.  I know what some will say:  "That is too heavy."  The wire becomes a "rod" or whatever.  But the fact is that there really were some manufacturers who "dared" to put such heavy wire in those places.

The only real problem with the heavier wire is that it starts to get quite loud and brassy sounding.  In my opinion, with quite a lot of experience with it, the only thing you really need to do to combat that problem is to aggressively voice down the hammers in that section.  I have also heard about other solutions such as placing a brass weight on the soundboard opposite the end of the tenor bridge to provide some impedance but I never did that.  It does, however make sense.  The Baldwin 600 is one piano that I seem to recall had such a feature.

In the late 80's and early 90's, I rescaled many pianos that I restrung using only a book that provided information on plain wire specifications.  What I found was that manufacturers routinely adhered to "traditional" wire changes, such as "six of these, four of those" and never dared to go much higher than a size 18 or 19 on a low tenor bridge (where some wound strings might have been more appropriate).  They just put there those flabby strings and left you, the technician to deal with it!

The most I ever did to manage the problem of literally "too much sound" from perhaps the lowest two unisons was to reduce them from being tri-chord unisons to bi-chord.  (This, presumably may have been a place to change to wound strings.  However at the time, I had no ability to provide specifications for such.  I had to go with only the bichord plain wire.  It worked.)  There are opinions about plain wire bichords but there are also a number of pianos that have them.  While I think that perhaps the very lowest two unisons in the case you cite may benefit from plain wire bichords and very heavy plain wire such as up to size 22, I think that a slightly more conservative approach may work even better.

Find the highest wire gauge on the low tenor bridge.  It should be marked on there.  See how many unisons there are of the same size.  Leave the highest two as they are but for each remaining pair, increase the wire size one full size.  That will do the trick. 

Zeno,

I have long been perplexed by the very problem that you cite.  It seems to me that manufacturers are too "chicken" to really put on some wire that will do the job!  I have spent many years observing scales and found a very few where they were not so "chicken" to do so.

Some of the worst offenders are the Yamaha GH1 with plain and flabby wire down to B2 as well as Steinway Model L, the same:  six unisons of size 18 wire on a "hockey stick" bridge when they could have easily divided those six unisons up to 2 size 18, 2 size 19, 2 size 20 and 2 size 21.  I know what some will say:  "That is too heavy."  The wire becomes a "rod" or whatever.  But the fact is that there really were some manufacturers who "dared" to put such heavy wire in those places.

The only real problem with the heavier wire is that it starts to get quite loud and brassy sounding.  In my opinion, with quite a lot of experience with it, the only thing you really need to do to combat that problem is to aggressively voice down the hammers in that section.  I have also heard about other solutions such as placing a brass weight on the soundboard opposite the end of the tenor bridge to provide some impedance but I never did that.  It does, however make sense.  The Baldwin 600 is one piano that I seem to recall had such a feature.

In the late 80's and early 90's, I rescaled many pianos that I restrung using only a book that provided information on plain wire specifications.  What I found was that manufacturers routinely adhered to "traditional" wire changes, such as "six of these, four of those" and never dared to go much higher than a size 18 or 19 on a low tenor bridge (where some wound strings might have been more appropriate).  They just put there those flabby strings and left you, the technician to deal with it!

The most I ever did to manage the problem of literally "too much sound" from perhaps the lowest two unisons was to reduce them from being tri-chord unisons to bi-chord.  (This, presumably may have been a place to change to wound strings.  However at the time, I had no ability to provide specifications for such.  I had to go with only the bichord plain wire.  It worked.)  There are opinions about plain wire bichords but there are also a number of pianos that have them.  While I think that perhaps the very lowest two unisons in the case you cite may benefit from plain wire bichords and very heavy plain wire such as up to size 22, I think that a slightly more conservative approach may work even better.

Find the highest wire gauge on the low tenor bridge.  It should be marked on there.  See how many unisons there are of the same size.  Leave the highest two as they are but for each remaining pair, increase the wire size one full size.  That will do the trick. 

Zeno,

I have long been perplexed by the very problem that you cite.  It seems to me that manufacturers are too "chicken" to really put on some wire that will do the job!  I have spent many years observing scales and found a very few where they were not so "chicken" to do so.

Some of the worst offenders are the Yamaha GH1 with plain and flabby wire down to B2 as well as Steinway Model L, the same:  six unisons of size 18 wire on a "hockey stick" bridge when they could have easily divided those six unisons up to 2 size 18, 2 size 19, 2 size 20 and 2 size 21.  I know what some will say:  "That is too heavy."  The wire becomes a "rod" or whatever.  But the fact is that there really were some manufacturers who "dared" to put such heavy wire in those places.

The only real problem with the heavier wire is that it starts to get quite loud and brassy sounding.  In my opinion, with quite a lot of experience with it, the only thing you really need to do to combat that problem is to aggressively voice down the hammers in that section.  I have also heard about other solutions such as placing a brass weight on the soundboard opposite the end of the tenor bridge to provide some impedance but I never did that.  It does, however make sense.  The Baldwin 600 is one piano that I seem to recall had such a feature.

In the late 80's and early 90's, I rescaled many pianos that I restrung using only a book that provided information on plain wire specifications.  What I found was that manufacturers routinely adhered to "traditional" wire changes, such as "six of these, four of those" and never dared to go much higher than a size 18 or 19 on a low tenor bridge (where some wound strings might have been more appropriate).  They just put there those flabby strings and left you, the technician to deal with it!

The most I ever did to manage the problem of literally "too much sound" from perhaps the lowest two unisons was to reduce them from being tri-chord unisons to bi-chord.  (This, presumably may have been a place to change to wound strings.  However at the time, I had no ability to provide specifications for such.  I had to go with only the bichord plain wire.  It worked.)  There are opinions about plain wire bichords but there are also a number of pianos that have them.  While I think that perhaps the very lowest two unisons in the case you cite may benefit from plain wire bichords and very heavy plain wire such as up to size 22, I think that a slightly more conservative approach may work even better.

Find the highest wire gauge on the low tenor bridge.  It should be marked on there.  See how many unisons there are of the same size.  Leave the highest two as they are but for each remaining pair, increase the wire size one full size.  That will do the trick.