Hi everyone

Thanks to all who gave encouragement for my recent eye trouble (detached 
retina.)  I has been a longer time than I had hoped for the recovery but 
all is well now with vision back completely.  Back to the shop to get 
caught up on jacks.

I built a copy after the Smithsonian Guisti a few years back and made a 
stupid error in the scaling.  As a result, the right (short) choir will 
hold pitch with soft brass (Little Falls brass from the Instrument 
Workshop) but the scale turns out to be just a bit too long for brass to 
hold without snapping.  The only solution I could think of was to use 
the dreaded phosphor bronze.  This has worked OK.  Not ideal sound, but 
at least P-bronze has sufficient tensile strength for this application.  
However, phosphor bronze gets brittle with age - after a year or so the 
strings start snapping randomly (or rather, non-randomly - always just 
before a performance.)

I'm looking into replacing the p-bronze choir on this instrument with 
beryllium/copper wire.  Little Falls can provide BeCu wire in the sizes 
needed, albeit with minimum quantity orders.  I don't know if this will 
be affordable until I receive their quote which I requested today.  
Neither the Instrument Workshop nor anyone else supplies BeCu wire in 
smaller quantities.

Anyone have experience with Beryllium/copper wire?  Little Falls lists 
several alloy ratios, and varying hardening treatments.  I'm supposing 
that their softest alloy ratio, annealed not hardened, would be the best 
choice.

BTW, yes beryllium is toxic, but only if one is exposed to machining or 
grinding dust, etc.  Simply handling an alloy containing the element 
poses no risk.

thanks,
Norm Purdy

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