"Rolling" A-string

Erik,

It's dead. Either replace it or change brands. There have been other threads posted here about the short life span of Obligatos. Mine lasted about 6 months. The first to go was the E string then the A string.

Mark

 

That's the exact behavior that I wrote about a little bit ago. I replaced with Corelli 370 F. Very good so far. Not as warm as the obligatos but I like.

 

My strings are still fine. I am wondering if tuning at 442 Hz in America vs 440 Hz in Europe has something to do with the lesser longevity of Obligatos accros the pound. Maybe I don't pluck hard enough. Gonna start to beat the sh*t out of 'em strings so I kill 'em like youze.

 

I've never heard it said that 442 is a standard in the USA. First thing I do at a club is check the piano. They're always at 440 (or less )

'A' above 440 depends how fussy the precious violinists are.

And I've had the same problem with the Obligato winding spinning around the core. It's a shame they have to sound so good when they're new.

 

Don, somehow I had the impression that our jazz instructor was not right about that. You just straitened up the facts, thanks.

 

It's no wonder that I am always out of tune. Guess I'm going to have to grind a little off the ends of my tuning fork to get it to 440. But seriously, I always thought that the Europeans tuned above 440, regardless what Don says about their violinsist.

Mark

 

I've found that church pianos in Chicago are almost invariably tuned* to 442 or higher. Seems to apply to multiple denominations so it's not just a Catholic thing...

* Although in many cases, saying that the piano is "tuned" is perhaps an overstatement. I'll usually take an electronic reading on A at 3 or 4 octaves and go for the average unless there's a clear pattern to the mis-tuning (i.e., running increasingly sharp or flat across the run of the piano).

But my understanding was that European orchestras tend to tune sharper than American.

-dh

 

Since the environment can send the pitch in either direction, I'll say it another way. I've never heard, and I've never heard OF, a piano tuner saying he tuned above 440. And, right or wrong, I've been under the impression that tuning high was a European thing, although I don't have the foggiest notion where I got that idea.
And I still say the violinists are a pain in the ass.

 

Don,

We all agree with when it comes to musicians with little heads.
As far as A tuning goes, try playing alone with a Berliner Philharmoniker CD. When I first tried it, I knew I was not that good but I thought what sh**ty intonation I had. It wasn't until my teacher told me about the A 440 vs 442,443,444 or 445
that they tuned to. Since then I only buy CDs produced in the UK or USA.

BTW, my intonation is great, it's the Germans that are bad. except for Klaus Trumpf.

Mark

 

We've switched to an interesting debate on pitch, but the point I wanted to make about short lived Obligato was that, although they stretch a lot before reaching pitch, maybe it jeopardize their integrity to tune them, even so slightly, above normal pitch ?