Twist the Old Bass Strings, Also soundboard crown
By D. L. Bullock
This was originally published on Mechanical Music Digest in 1997. Copyright D.L. Bullock 1997-2002 (Message sent Tue 19 Aug 1997)

Bernt Damm wrote:

"American pianos need re-stringing but the German ones do not.
We attribute this mainly to the fact that the American strings used steel and not copper for the first layer of the 2-layer bass strings.  Somehow this rusts severely, creating a dull and tinny sound."

This is strange, and it must be caused by the climate half a world away in So. Africa. In America, the old steel strings usually sound much better than the copper wound strings. The copper ones always go dead and the steel ones usually do not. The exception is if they are caked in rust. Nothing could sound good with that. We often have both kinds of strings in the same piano. I wish I could get Mapes to make steel wound strings, but they refuse.

One secret that many rebuilders do not know, however, will bring to life a new set of strings and bring back to life an old one. I refer to twisting all bass strings when they go on. I find this was done on many of the best quality old pianos and it works well.

Twist the string in the direction that the end of the winding points. If you twist in the wrong direction you will find a dull thud for tone. If you do it correctly, it will add the impression of an extra foot of length to the piano's sound. I find three twists works best. I have put as more but you run risk of breakage with that. One or two revolutions do not do enough good, but three seems to be optimum.

We refurbish many 20- to 40-year-old Yamaha and Kawai grands and we have gotten to where we remove the bass strings from the hitch pins and clean the sound boards and then twist all of the bass strings when we put them back on. I have tried merely cleaning the sound board and not touching the strings, but that leaves a dead tone. Yamaha doesn't believe in crown so the strings seem to go dead sooner.

Good luck

D. L. Bullock Piano World St. Louis

Twist the Old Bass Strings
By D. L. Bullock
This was originally published on Mechanical Music Digest in 1998. Copyright D.L. Bullock 1997-2002 Message sent Fri 22 Aug 1997)

Craig Broucher wrote:

> Twisting bass strings is an absolute necessity when replacing them.  It isn't something one does to "add another foot of length" exactly, but what one does to prevent the strings from rattling and buzzing, eventually. It also allows the string to develop all its partials.

I agree. Back years ago when I was using Schaff bass strings, I always had to twist them because they rattled like heck if I did not. Now I do it no matter what. However, if I have one of my people put on a set of strings without remembering to twist, I no longer have the rattles, but the whole bass section sounds dead until we go in and twist them. 

(Copper/steel)

> I doubt if I could tell the difference between the two kinds
> in an honestly performed test.>>

Correct again, I have only rarely found a piano whose bass strings were in fully usable condition with both copper and steel. There was no discernable difference. In many other pianos, however, the copper strings had gone dead before the steel ones did.

Having refurbished so many Yamaha grands, we have learned that you are not getting the full benefit from your bass section unless you go in and twist all your bass strings 3 turns.

> As far as the crown of a soundboard having something to do with the longevity of the strings, well of course, it doesn't. Crown is used to counteract the downward pressure of the strings against the bridges.

Correct again.

> It has nothing to do with sound production,

I will take issue with this because of my thirty years of restoring fine pianos. Early on, I restrung many pianos without adjusting crown in them. I was always disappointed in those results. Once I learned the recrowning techniques, I was blown away at how much difference there was after recrowning. The difference is an old piano often sounds "thunky" in the low tenor section above the break. I liken the tone to that of banging on radiator pipes instead of strings. Baby grands are especially bad about this. I listen to the resonance of each board before crowning, and again after crowning, and there is a huge difference. I am talking about a piano case and soundboard alone. All strings and plate are in another room. A well crowned soundboard will ring like a tympani with not a string in sight. Also you can listen to the tuning of the board alone by whacking it in various places with the heel of your hand. Near the bass bridge the ring is lower pitched and near the treble bridge the ringing is higher pitched. A crowned board will ring a second or two. An uncrowned board will go thunk like hitting your dining table with a fist.

Yes the crown, when returned, corrects most downbearing problems the piano used to have. This noticeably affects the ability of the piano to stay in tune. Crown is originally put into the board by shaping the ribs before they are glued on, AND the board is kept in a completely dry room. The ribs are glued on and the crown is there. While still dry the board is glued into the piano rim. The heavier the rim the less likely it is to let the crown flatten. Then the finished unit is brought out into the normal moist air. The board is unable to spread out because it is glued into the rim, now. The soundboard takes on moisture in the air and grows wider across grain. The only way the extra wood can expand is up. The soundboard takes on moisture so fast that it is almost possible to see the crown rise as you watch. You cannot depend only on this extra moisture driven crown, since you do not know what climate the piano will be put into in the future.

This is the problem with a certain soundboard (so called) "expert" in Ohio. I have seen 4 of his pianos into which he put new boards. Every one of them was great when it arrived from Ohio, but within 6 months the treble no longer had any sustaining ability, which was the whole reason he got the piano in the first place. When the moisture from the Ohio river finally left the board through the finish, there was no crown left. He bragged to me that he put no crown into the ribs, but relied on moisture alone to crown his work. One of his pianos is in my showroom. It has no power in the top end. If I have it very much longer, I will destring it and recrown the new board. That won't be as good as having the crown in the ribs, but anything would help. The tone of the instrument is very disappointing. It has a 5 year old soundboard with very little crown.

D. L. Bullock Piano World St. Louis