HPSCHD-L Archives

Harpsichords and Related Topics

HPSCHD-L@LIST.UIOWA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
SCN User <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Date:
Tue, 17 Jan 1995 07:44:16 -0800
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (159 lines)
This is a little long - for a clavichord string - sorry ...
 
Hello - Chris Paris wrote:
 
    From: [log in to unmask] (Chris Paris) Subject:
    Breaking strings on the clavichord
        Ever since I finished building my Zuckermann five octave
    clavichord at the end of 1989, I have had a very frustrating
    problem of strings breaking while I tune. The breaks are
    always at the base of the coil as it leaves the tuning pin
    toward the bridge. I wind the wire on the pins by locking it
    over itself, but I am careful to leave six or so revolutions
    of wire over the pin after the end of the wire and before it
    leaves the tuning pin. The wire never breaks at a point where
    it's still going over the end of the wire, but always at the
    point where it leaves the tuning pin, which is several inches
    away from the last point at which wire was wrapped over wire.
    The breaks happen only while I am turning a pin, and only to
    the wire that I'm adjusting. I'd say that I break at least
    one wire about half the times that I do a complete tuning
    job, and sometimes I break several wires in one tuning job.
    Wires usually break in the c' to c'' range, which is where I
    set the temperament (and thus where I spend most of my time).
    I rarely break a wire above c'', and almost never below c'.
    On the bottom area of my instrument, all wires are five years
    old.
 
I have had this same problem.
 
John Sankey wrote:
     Of course it's also possible that your instrument was copied
    from one designed for a lower pitch.
 
The design for this clavichord was more-or-less stolen from the
first Dolmetch/Chickering from 1905, definitely for a'=435-440.
The first thing I would do is check the pitch (this is something
which doesn't automatically come to mind with a clavichord, since
it is never used with other instruments.) Mine has a way of
creeping up; I have never caught it sitting below 440. A slightly
lower pitch wouldn't hurt; the stringing schedule is mostly
pretty heavy, so the action should be firm enough. The bottom bass
notes might suffer slightly; have you the overspun bass strings
supplied early on, or the solid ones supplied later when the
overspun ones became unavailable?
 
[By the way - does anyone know of someone equipped to make
loosely overspun strings for this and similar purposes?]
 
Chris Paris wrote:
     The breaks happen only while I am turning a pin, and only to
    the wire that I'm adjusting. I'd say that I break at least
    one wire about half the times that I do a complete tuning
    job, and sometimes I break several wires in one tuning job.
    Wires usually break in the c' to c'' range, which is where I
    set the temperament (and thus where I spend most of my time).
 
If you tune like the rest of us, you do a certain amount of
searching for the pitch in setting a temperament. With a
clavichord as with a virginals, this seems to be a particular
problem - maybe the bridge [a bridge] is near the tuning pins,
and moves a bit with pitch changes, or the bridge pins offer more
friction, or some such.
 
I wrote a while back about tuning clavichord strings _up from
below._ That often means lowering them once before tuning, but I
try to take special care not to search back and forth for the
pitch. Not only does that make it less likely that the pitch will
hold, but it bends and straightens the wire repeatedly at the
tuning pin - exactly what you would do if you wanted to break the
wire!
 
I find that if I am careful to tune _up_ slowly, with much
tugging at the string with the tangent by playing the key with a
lot of force, I don't have to search for the pitch I want nearly
so much.
 
    I wrote to Mr. Way about this in 1990 when I described
    everything about my construction experience. His response on
    this matter follows:
    [snip]
         "The reason you are not breaking the heavier wire is
       that it can stand a lot more abuse, since it is not
       stressed so close to its breaking point."
 
     Well, I appreciate his response, but it doesn't help. The
    gremlins have never snuck in and broken a wire while I was
    away.
 
Way's response was also wrong, and he knew better. The heavier
wire in the baritone is there because the scale (length of the
strings for pitch is foreshortened, as well as because the ear is
less sensitive there; the shorter scale is less likely to break.
If the same wire were used higher up, it would break exactly as
often; the strength and the stress are _both_ proportaional to
the diameter, and so cancel out.
 
Some people do find it necessary to restring all-brass
instruments every few years; I once had a client who thought his
Italian was breaking strings because they were more than a year
old. In fact, it was because it was being tuned for the Symphony
by a piano tech, who searched up and down for the pitches. The
wire does get more brittle with age and tuning, especially at the
tuning pins; but mine is more than five years old. Restringing a
clavichord, along with getting the listing cloth all right again,
is a bit of a production. A partial restringing (or even
replacing a single string) is maybe even more of a hassle!
 
Despite care with pitch and technique, I still break strings as
you describe. I finally found a new trick which looks silly, but
which I have made work.
 
I found I was breaking the overspun bass strings: the wrappings
were hanging up on the bridge pin, and of course the core wire is
bruised by the overwrap if it extends to the tuning pin. And I
found that replacements were unavailable.
 
Using great care, I found I could splice a piece of iron / steel
wire to the end of the string using a very carefully made
hitchpin-like winding. I then wrap the solid wire on the tuning
pin, leaving the bulky knot-wrapping between bridge and tuning
pin. As I said, it looks silly, but it salvages the string and
prevents further breakage.
 
So I extended the trick upward, to the strings breaking in
temperament range. When one breaks, I splice on about a foot of
iron wire of the same weight, making a rather long and very
carefully wrapped splice. The iron wrapped on the tuning pin,
being about 40% stronger in tension, won't break; the splice
stabalizes faster than I had expected; I have an aged and
therefore stable string; and I don't have to fish a new string
through the listing! As I said, it looks silly, but it works.
 
    The more I break 'em the meaner I get, and that's pretty damn
    mean, so someone please make me nice!
 
I can't say I blame you. (You have been using the broken string
to pull the new one through the listing, haven't you?)
 
My famously sour caffeinated disposition can't add much to yours,
but you might try this trick if it doesn't seem too silly to you.
It will take your best double-helix-making skills - what would
Way say if he could see this?
 
Let me know how your results come out.
 
                                                David Calhoun
 
 
_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_
                          ANTE MUSICA
  6220 Latona Avenue Northeast, Seattle, WAshington 98115-6553
                Internet address: [log in to unmask]
A Northwest Workshop affiliated with Zuckermann Harpsichords Inc.
~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~+_+~
 
 
O by the way - youno longer have a "Zuckermann" clavichord. You
have a "Paris" clavichord, made from Zuckermann parts...  dc

ATOM RSS1 RSS2