Ed Sutton wrote: >One simple experiment would be to tap the capo bar and the tops of a few >agraffes with a piano hammer, and see if that produces the offending noise. >Ed S. Or, perhaps bow the top of the hitch pin with a violin bow. Jeff's great story about gathering worms illustrates a fundamental concept of mechanical leverage and vibration transmission. The concept is the same as mounting a tuning fork to a soundboard and setting it in motion - it moves the soundboard well. But an iron plate will not ring very efficiently most of the time. The Baldwin hitch panel is very thick iron, and while it is conceivable that it could have some kind of resonant frequency, it isn't going to sing very well in response to those steel grub sticks. The manner in which iron will transmit vibrations is very different than mud, so the analogy may not really apply. I suspect the sounds Jeff has heard from Baldwins with accu-just could be from another source. For instance, it has been my experience that taping off all of the open strings (aliquot and tuning pin segments) changes the tone rather dramatically, and there is no longer any sense of 'ringy-ness' in the piano. I'll have to chime-in on the "no amplifier" discussion as well, as this has been one of my pet peeves ever since Del pointed out this error to me years ago in so many piano company's brochures. After having this same discussion many times with different people, I figured out why people stick to this description. If one uses the word "amplifier" as something that makes a sound louder, then that is a _technically_ incorrect use of the word amplifier. But words are sometimes defined differently amongst different groups of people; if one chooses to use that definition of 'amplifier' anyway, then a soundboard, transducing the string vibrations into air movement, does indeed make the sound louder. So, everyone in the "SB as amplifier" camp, please, from now on, you need to be consistent in your definition of what an amplifier is, and also call your home theater / stereo / car stereo / radio speakers 'amplifiers' as well. After all, these "amplifiers' (speakers) take those little vibrations in the wires and makes them loud enough to hear - transducing one form of movement (electrons) into air movement. And that other thing with the volume knob? Well, we'll have to give it a new name or something. Because all it does is add electrons to the wires and make them move with more energy, it doesn't make anything louder. It'll have to be an "electro boost" device or something. :-) Don Mannino
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