1950 |
| Bédel of Paris experiments with stainless steel wire in his piano workshop to solve problems of too much stiffness in piano wire, especially with short scalings as can be found in small grands, as well as in 2nd half 19th century and early 20th century pianos. Experiments were limited and stopped soon for various reasons. |
1985 |
| Frits Janmaat, piano restorer of Amsterdam, applies stainless steel wire in his 19th century pianos, using bottom lines for big game fishery. This wire was an improvement and the sound had a certain charm, but the quality of this type of wire was not hi-tech and there were many strings with false beats. There were no half sizes and the wire was rather brittle. |
1992 |
| Barth-Jan Kooy, bassstring maker of Holland and Daniël Boulanger, piano restorer of Belgium start a search for a better quality stainless steel wire for restorations, stainless steel being the only possible solution to a substitute for various types of wire of the 2nd half of the 19th century. |
1994 |
| A factory is found that promises to produce good quality stainless steel wire in all sizes needed and in smaller quantities than the wire industry normally demands (one ton per gauge number). Barth-Jan Kooy, Daniël Boulanger, Frits Janmaat, Juan Más Cabré and three others put up the money for the first order of hi-tech stainless steel wire. Juan Más Cabré argues that this wire should be available for everybody in the trade. Since he cannot find any wholesaler of piano parts interested in the project, he decides to take it on himself, topping up his mortgage to pay for it all. |
1995 |
| Juan Más Cabré of Amstelveen, Holland, starts selling stainless steel wire under his employers name Dolf van den Assem. He informs every buyer of the experimental nature. Since very few data were given about the wire, he insists on having the appropriate data from the factory. |
1996 |
Pure Sound is founded on the 23rd of August by Juan & Mary Más Cabré. |
1997 |
| First advertising and introduction in Europiano Magazine, 97/2. The number of piano workshops interested is steadily growing and results are constantly good, even beyond expectations for many of them. First reactions from Japanese piano technicians, who are extremely enthousiastic. |
2005 |
| The number of workshops all over Europe has grown to about 500 and Pure Sound wire is now also available with eight different wholesalers of piano parts all over the world. Pure Sound seriously enters the US market by publishing an article on the history of wiremaking emphasizing 19th century developments. Pure Sound starts advertising in The Piano Technicians Journal of the USA and Canada. The stainless steel piano wire proves to be much more versatile than could ever be expected. Instead of just being a solution to restorations of 19th century pianos, it has been widely used for complete stringings of many modern pianos, especially small grands. Moreover, intensified contacts with the best wiremakers of Europe have resulted in the production of an extra strong version of wire gauges for treble strings. |