Surprising Results, who knows how the stringmakers test the tension required by their strings? We got way more tension on each string than the manufacturers say is required.
An amusing note, we were about 1/3 done with testing, we started with a set of Martin Mediums, then switched to D'Addario Lights for that guage. Printed right on the back of the package is the tension required to tune each string! No kidding.
We are glad that we tested though, my son, and I for that matter were blown away by what we found. Here are the totals.
Light Guage 202.5 lbs
Medium Guage 227.5 lbs
Heavy Guage 271.9 lbs
The heavy guage exerts 69 lbs more pull than the lights.
The medium guage exerts 25 lbs more pull than the lights. That is a lot of tension.
These tests took hours to perform. I was proud of my son's tenacity to stick with it. Now for some incredible individual string reads.
We had one anamoly, a .045 medium A string that required 48.4 lbs to tune it to pitch. It didn't fit the pattern of the other strings, so we retested using another .045 medium A string, that one while still high did drop six pounds to 42.2 lbs.
I guess for it's size, we were most amazed by the G string of the medium set at .026 guage, it required 46.2 pounds of tension to pull it to pitch. No wonder those things really zing when they break. We also found out that, that particular string, has a .013 inner core, the same as a medium high E string, .013.
So that about does it for testing. Pat Foster is probably right, we should have used a pulley. I'd love to know how manufactures arrive at their numbers. I'm sure our crude setup, had something to do with our higher numbers.
Not only did we test a bunch of strings, we made a memory on my son's day off of school. His brother drove 90 miles from a neighboring college town to bring him a set of heavy strings which are hard to find by the way. You have to either special order them or buy them as individual strings, which is what we did.
Okay, the two strings tied for the most pull, the heavy D and G strings weighed in to pitch at 57.4 pounds of force. We used a piece of Romex, an old weight-lifting set, a bolt which we wrapped the string around and bolted the weights too. Time consuming, and made a loud crashing sound on two strings that broke in process. Watch those toes! We considered the fishing scale inline, but decided that the scale was too small to read accurately.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
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