Plucking strings and sustain time

[Kam544@aol.com]

Barney Ricca posted:
>>Perhaps
you could elucidate, Keith, on what is supposedly going on, or why
plucking was suggested in the first place...<<

Dear Barney,

Let me first clarify that I am not referring to fitting hammers to the
strings.

To continue...someone last week indicated to me that they could judge the
tone of a piano merely by plucking the strings.  I, on the other hand,
basically took the position that determining the tone of the piano required
the hammer actually striking the string to determine the tone.  That is the
gist of the proposition.

It may be a matter of semantics, but long ago I came to understand that if
the sustain time, or duration of sustain, by plucking the string of a
particular note equaled the sustain time of the same string set in motion by
being struck with the hammer, using the key and its related parts (with the
understanding that all parts are in regulation and frictional resistances are
appropiate), then that test was a positive indication of a structurally sound
piano with regards to its soundboard and bridges. (That's the best I can
state it at this moment in time.)

However, tone...wait, let me pull forth the dictionary meaning when I say
tone:

2.a. The quality or character of sound.
   b. The characteristic quality or timbre of a particular instrument or
voice.

is subject to regulation adjustments, frictional resistances, type of parts
used, time of day, humidity, artist, instrument, ad infinitum.

Maybe the "voice" of the piano would be the more appropiate word for me to
use, rather than tone.

William Braid White, in Piano Tuning and Allied Arts says on page 131, "The
feature of the piano which distinguishes it generally from other stringed
instruments, is the character of its tonal output.  This is generated by
blows inflicted on the strings.  It follows that the resulting sounds arise
from the free vibrations of the strings, continuing after the cause of the
excitatin has ceased to operate."

Now maybe in its literal sense, plucking the string is a blow inflicted on
the string, but this is not how a piano is generally played or perceived,
(not 'dishing' 20th century music concepts at all).

So I return to the reality that I have entertained to date, that to truly
arrive at the potential tone or voice of a piano, all other factors mentioned
above must be arrived at first before one can truly determine the potential
tone or voice of a piano.

And here I arrive at my original post question: If there is more that is
relevant by plucking alone, would someone reveal what apparently I have never
paid attention to in the past?

Keith A. McGavern, RPT
Oklahoma Chapter 731