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 a foot of length to the piano's
sound.  I find three twists works best.  I have put as many as six 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

 [ How does the crown affect the life of the strings?   -- Robbie