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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 8, 2005 14:53:16 GMT -5
Okay RandomHero I'm sure most if not all of us know first hand why:
'Guitarists know far better than physics students that six strings at 24 pounds of tension each equals a lot of "potential energy!"'
( POP -- ow! man i hate it when that happens!)
but what i gotta know is:
how did you get the number "24 pounds of tension"?
did you measure it? calculate it? read it somewhere? s.w.a.g.?
thanks,
U.M.
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Post by RandomHero on Sept 8, 2005 22:08:31 GMT -5
I don't remember where it's at, but somewhere online there's a calculator that you enter the tuning, guage, and scale length of a string, and it will give you a rough estimate on it's tension. Also, on the back of D'Addario packages I think are a list of tensions for their strings. 24 is around the low E, and they don't vary a lot up the scale.  |
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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 9, 2005 10:24:00 GMT -5
:lol: i wondered why no one else asked you about this. i guess if its in print on all those string packages, most of the other members already knew the source of that reference.
once upon a time i use to read every word on everything i bought, no matter how trivial. amazing how some habits change over time.
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Post by wolf on Sept 9, 2005 10:32:39 GMT -5
I once read many years ago that a piano has 16 tons of tension in its strings. Making a rough estimate that a piano has 176 strings (high keys have 3, middle keys have 2 low keys just one), if each piano string has the equivalent tension of a guitar string, then that would only be 2 tons.
Maybe piano strings are made differently.
(I'm pretty sure the tension was "16 tons" because the song made it easy to remember. OR the song made me it easy to memorize an incorrect fact.)
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Post by RandomHero on Sept 9, 2005 11:27:56 GMT -5
Piano strings are quite a bit longer, and tuned to a much larger range. Think; a string for each note on four octaves? Plus the fact that the bass strings are bigger than your pinky! Harps are disasters waiting to happen too.
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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 9, 2005 15:15:48 GMT -5
i just love it when a thread runs off on a tangent! so many facts, so many semi-related thoughts.
although sixteen tons was about coal mining, it would be a pretty good device to remember how much tension is in a piano. after googling around, some numbers i found were 80~90 kg per string so for 176 strings @85 kg that comes to just over 16 tons.
another bit of trivia, the piano folks say a string sounds it's best when it is near it's breaking tension. most modern pianos are at about 60~65% of breaking tension. bet the hohner folks would disagree what tension sounds best on a string. my s.w.a.g. on the tension of a clav -- somewhere between 1/2 ~ 2 pounds.
i also read that the first 10 notes have a 1 string choir, the next 15 have a 2 string choir, and the remaining 63 have a 3 string choir. guess there must be some different configuations to pianos other than the obvious ones you see on the outside.
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Post by wolf on Sept 9, 2005 16:02:59 GMT -5
unklmickey
As I said I was just taking a guess that there were 176 strings on a piano, but your calculations do seem to indicate that "16 tons" is probably the tension of all the piano strings. (So, 176 strings is a pretty good guess).
I'm pretty sure piano wire is wound onto spools but wouldn't it be funny if it came in boxes of 176 strings? What a restringing job that would be.
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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 9, 2005 16:19:19 GMT -5
yeah, i'll think of that this winter when i'm restringing the clav, its only got 60 strings so compared to that its not so bad. :lol: who am i kidding, its still gonna be a slow tedious pain.
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Post by RandomHero on Sept 9, 2005 22:41:09 GMT -5
On the topic of pains, take a 7-string set of 09,12,15,22,32,42,52, and restring the guitar for 11,14,18,28,38,48,60. On a FLOYD. Needed a new spring installed! It sucked but I like the tighter tone.
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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 13, 2005 11:29:12 GMT -5
speaking of Floyd, have you seen the new F.R. guitars with the new loading system? takes about 5 sec. per string to unload the old one and load up a new one. takes longer to carefully take a new string out of a package. don't know if i'd want to pay $8~10 for a set of 6 strings though. if they become more common, price will no doubt go down. couldn't bring myself to buy one 'cause i know i'd succumb to the overwhelming desire to saw off that empty headstock!
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Post by RandomHero on Sept 13, 2005 14:14:31 GMT -5
You should see Floyd Rose's new series of guitars! They're all equipped with the speedloaders, and the tunerless headstocks have little cutouts in them. I don't know what to say about the quality of the guitars, the only reviews I've seen on them are on GW and Musician'sFriend... "Kiss up and sell!" Not too reliable.
I like the Floyd for the wild, exotic sounds you can coax from it, but I'm starting to wish some money would materialize in my pocket for a 26.5in scale length tune-o-matic Schecter.
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Post by UnklMickey on Sept 13, 2005 15:22:40 GMT -5
yeah, those are the ones my saw was itchin' for. i see they have 2 lines, one group around $500~700 and another at ~$2k. probably offshore vs. u.s.
my friend tried a schecter c4 bass at a sam ash in st. louis, i think it was. he has a terrible aversion to active pickups, but he was awed by this bass anyway! "the damn thing practically played itself... ... it sounded like i was playing with a pick when i was using my fingers!" sounds like they make some stuff worth lookin' at.
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Post by RandomHero on Sept 13, 2005 15:32:47 GMT -5
My current axe is an old out-of-production Schecter, and it still plays like a brand new high-end guitar. The neck is flawless, the stock pickups were good but not what I wanted, so I changed them to DiMarzios... but the guitar itself... excellent craftsmanship for an overseas model. Other Schecters I've played blow me away too!
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