Draft:String scaling

Piano string scaling is a process that determines a piano’s optimal string lengths and diameters, enabling the instrument to produce, throughout its compass, its most uniform tone quality and volume.

The coincident effects of the speaking length of each string, their diameter and number of strings per note (monochord, bichord, or trichord), and whether the strings are wound or plain, are all considered. Bass strings, and not uncommonly the lowest tenor strings, have a plain wire core with a soft metal winding of varying diameters, typically drawn of copper, but occasionally of iron or aluminum, each of which have their own effect on the strings’ voice. Plain treble wire ranges through many sizes, with the largest diameters for the longest strings, and the smaller diameters for the shortest.