Appropriate string materials

Current research suggests that the tensile strength of pre-modern piano wire differed from that of modern piano wire.  There is some evidence that suggests the Chickering Piano Company either had wire drawn to their own specifications or, at some points drew the wire themselves. For this reason, we use Paulello nickel plated plain wire in varying tensile strengths.

To the best our ability, with what information is known, we try and match the tensile strengths of the wire used in the originals. This is by definition a guess, but we work within the limits of current research and availability. Wrapped strings are also Paulello, and the wraps can be either copper or soft nickel plated iron depending on the string scale.