GS 40 Stringing Begun

Today I installed the plain steel strings on the Kawai piano. Not all of the string are of the same diameter. The heaviest plain steel strings are .042". The lightest is .032".The length and diameter of the string is called the scale of the piano. This is designed by the piano manufacturer, and is typically not changed. The exception is on some poor quality old pianos, there can sometimes be an improvement in the sound of the piano by changing the scale. For significant changes, the bridges must also be redesigned, and this is not feasible in a poor quality piano. The most common change is to add several wound strings in the tenor section at the tenor/bass break. These notes in a poor quality small grand piano are often improved by adding wound string instead of the original plain steel strings.

I am not able to finish the string installation as I am waiting for the bass strings to arrive. These strings have copper wire wound over the plain steel core wire, and need to be custom made by a bass string maker. This piano has 39 wound bass strings.