ETD question re: unisons

[Michael Jorgensen]

 Hi Roger, and list,
         If the increased energy/power yeilded by having additional strings is
the cause of unison pitch drop, why wouldn't playing louder also cause a pitch
drop?
      Few piano strings are stable at a single pitch throughout all of attack,
(prompt sound), and die off, (after sound).  My general observation is this:
The pitch of the unison is EQUAL to the lowest registering pitch AT ANY TIME in
the attack/decay cycle by ANY ONE OF THE THREE STRINGS.  Check this observation
and see if you find it so.  Many individual strings can full blush for several
seconds (be very close), only to suddenly register flat-- a whole cent flat for
a brief instant and suddenly return to full blush.  Could the soundboard be
forcing/imposing a frequency against the will of the string and simply winning
the battle for a second or less?
-Mike Jorgensen

jolly roger wrote:.

> My own theory is that. as all strings start to increase the amount of
> energy into the bridge, the board is moving through a greater excussion,
> and hence dropping the frequency a tad.
> Now I've been out to lunch before, and I could be off base on this one.
> Regards Roger
>
> At 10:47 AM 2/14/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >Hi everyone,
> >
> >Since I know nothing about ETD's my question might be naive. Nevertheless
> >here goes: I believe that Virgil's assertion that a 3 string unison is
> >flatter than each of the single strings heard singly, is a bit questionable
> >or should I say not fully accepted. Wouldn't it be easy and conclusive to
> >check this thesis by using an ETD to measure this? Thanks!
> >
> >
> >Howard S. Rosen, RPT
> >7262 Angel Falls Ct.
> >Boynton Beach, Fl  33437
> >
> >hsrosen@gate.net
> >