Modal Analysis

[John Delacour]

At 10:07 PM +0000 12/5/01, Phillip L Ford wrote:

>I'm trying to think of how one could construct a test piano with a 
>clearer view of the soundboard.  My first thought was transparent 
>aluminum (a la Star Trek).  However, since I don't think it exists 
>as yet I'm still thinking.

I haven't been following the modal discussion too closely, but a 
solution to this did seem fairly easy.  Since the designer has a 
pretty good idea what the downbearing of the strings on the bridges 
is going to be, surely this downbearing could be reproduced with 
seven or eight cheap hydraulic rams each having a horizontal bar 
centred on a clevis at the end of the pistons and faced with rubber 
strips.  The pressure could then be distributed in a very similar way 
over the bridges.  No?

JD