Ghosts of impedance past, and yet to come

[Kristinn Leifsson]

Speaking of better unisons,

why is it that the right string in a three string unison, is more often 
than not the one with the least false beats?
And why does one sometimes have to touch up the right string (again more 
often than not) in the last check of the tuning?

Always wanted to know that.

Kromeo Iceman



At 08:19 16.6.2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Ron,
>Interesting! Do you suppose that wire size changes, minute differences of
>strike point or shape of the string at the termination point could cause the
>different results? That is only a few posibilitys.
>I do not know where this statement comes from but " the theory of three,
>any three tones sounding together closely in tune will sound in tune."
>This is why I choose to tune one string to a target point and the other
>strings one at a time to the target string. The results are most of the
>time, but not always, a better unison.
>Joe Goss
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 5:52 AM
>Subject: Ghosts of impedance past, and yet to come
>
>
> > Hi Gang,
> > Anyone remember my fevered speculations about the possibilities of the
> > reported pitch drop from a single string to a two or three string unison
> > possibly being related to the soundboard/string impedance match/mismatch?
> > Well, it just got stranger.
> >
> > Tuning the Kimball grand I'm finishing up, I set Tunelab going so I could
> > watch what a unison's pitch did as I progressed. I spent most of my time
>in
> > the top half of the scale. Some unisons dropped slightly, some stayed the
> > same, and some climbed in pitch as the second and third strings tuned in.
> > It was about an even three way split on probability, with no obvious order
> > or grouping as to position in the scale. The changes in the timing of the
> > attack pitch climb and drop back to dwell pitch were every bit as erratic
> > as the dwell pitch change. Some unisons that hadn't changed as the second
> > and third string tuned in, tended to climb slightly in pitch in decay.
>Some
> > dropped.
> >
> > Thinking I might have some control of the process by where I centered the
> > tuning of that second string, I played with it a bit within that area just
> > sharp or flat of dead-on to the first string - where you can wooly up the
> > attack a little without leaving a noticeable roll in the unison. Some
> > unisons seemed to be slightly steerable, some not. My favorites were the
> > unisons that went sharp as the second string tuned in, even when the
>second
> > string was still a beat low.
> >
> > In most cases, the addition of the third string took the climbers a little
> > higher, the droppers a little lower, and left the non changers non
>changed.
> > The only reasonably dependable effect I found was that the attack phase
> > pitch climb  tended to shorten in duration with the addition of each
> > string. It was interesting watching the attack phase of the unisons that
> > climbed in pitch. The single string envelope profiled about like that of
> > any other single string. Adding the second string, the attack pitch climb
> > seemed to be less than with the single string, but rose to maximum dwell
> > pitch in a second or so.
> >
> > So far, no answers, just more and different effects than others are
> > reporting. I'll tape off the back scale and play with it some more this
> > weekend. That will probably just add another layer of unaccountable
> > weirdness, but I might get lucky too.
> >
> > Later,
> > Ron N
> >