Mencoder wire

[something_clever]

I was just looking around and noticed that people keep mentioning piano wire for making mencoders. Baloopaloop even mentioned that he had to buy 25 3' long pieces in order to get any.

Is there any reason that guitar strings wouldn't work instead. You can buy a set of them for 5 or 6 bucks (maybe even cheaper) and I've even seen them for sale as singles.

I went and checked the sizes on a pack of D'Addario Light Phosphor Bronze strings I had and the two unwound strings (High E and B) are .012" and .016". If they needed to be thicker (the piano wire was .020") then there are also medium and thick strings and they are also available in two other kinds of bronze and steel (and that's just this brand).

Just checked some Martin Medium Phosphor Bronze ones too and they are .013 and .017 and are bronzed steel.

I'm assuming here that the wound ones would be of no use but in case they would work and/or someone can think of any other uses for them here are all of the measurements.

Martin

E-1 - .013" - .33mm
B-2 - .017" - .43mm
G-3 - .026" - .66mm
D-4 - .035" - .89mm
A-5 - .045" - 1.14mm
E-6 - .056" - 1.42mm

Martin

E-1 - .012" - .30mm
B-2 - .016" - .41mm
G-3 - .024" - .61mm
D-4 - .032" - .81mm
A-5 - .042" - 1.07mm
E-6 - .053" - 1.35mm

Hope this can be helpful to someone. Just don't buy classical guitar strings. The high strings are usually nylon.

[Squelchtone]

ugh.. its called a Medecoder.

not mencoder

http://www.medecoder.com/


Squelchtone

[something_clever]

Oops, sorry. Medecoder is a new word to me. Mencoder is a Linux package related to MPlayer and for some reason I hear that in my head every time I read Medecoder. I despise bad spelling too, so I apologize for the error.

[thelockpickkid]

I am not a Medeco picker by no means!! But I am not sure if these would work because I am not sure if you can straighten these enough to use them, don't they always want to curl back up? Especially if they aren't tightened up, do you know what I mean?

[something_clever]

No, actually quite the opposite. It's hard to keep them curled up. As soon as you take them out of the package the uncurl quite quickly and only have a slight curve to them. On the other hand if you bend them to a sharp radius they will retain the shape for the most part. For example, the part around the tuning post will remain in a spiral on old strings.

I don't think it would be too hard to straighten out the slight curve but it might not even be enough to matter on such a short piece. I don't know because I've never actually seen a Medecoder in person and probably won't need to for quite a long time.

[JK_the_CJer]

Guitar string should work great; I think its all the same material. Let us know how it goes

[something_clever]

I'll let you know how it goes but it might be a few years. I probably won't be trying to pick locks like that for quite a while.

I just thought I'd put this idea out there for people that might want to make one but either can't find piano wire or doesn't want to buy a bunch of it. $7 or cheaper for a pack of strings seems like a better option especially if you can just get a single string.

If anyone wants to try it I can even send out a couple different sizes of used strings cut into whatever size you want that will fit in an envelope. Just make sure you let us all know if it works.

[raimundo]

Just carry a wire clipper and when you get around one of those grand pianos with the top up. get a long base string, they have so many, who would miss just one.

JUST KIDDING FOLKS.
its my twisty sence of humor.

[tballard]

ust carry a wire clipper and when you get around one of those grand pianos with the top up. get a long base string, they have so many, who would miss just one.

Is it bad that I'm smiling imagining what would happen immediately after the wire was cut? I think there is a good chance of (perhaps well-deserved) blood.

As far as the wire goes, it's probably about the same price if bought at a hobby shop or a music store. In fact, most hobby shops carry it under the name "music wire"