Unison Flatter than each Individual string?

[Richard Moody]

It may be that the machine is fooled.  Who first noticed this
"phenomenon" ?  a machine tuner or an aural tuner?  But if the
machine is erring, then two different machines would probably give
two different readings.  If so then you would want to see if 3
diff machines  give 3 diff readings.  I would like to see the
machine register low for 3 strings and THEN hear how the beats
sound.  In Virgil's class in Chicago, hands were raised for both,
"who can hear the difference" "who cannot hear the difference."

If you give a blindfold test to more than 3 tuners I believe you
will get a "can't hear a difference".   So set up the tests and
lets find out .    ---ric

ps  re the talk about "modes" of the sb, then don't forget about
"modes" of the microphone or pickup device of the machine.  We all
know the ear can be fooled. (Echo, slow beats caused by a fan, hum
of lighting, false string, slightly false string, loose bridge
pin, loose agraffe, bends in the wire, and   so on and so on how
bout beats from sub sonic vibrations of the building caused by
traffic?)
    My limited understanding of how tuning machines work, some
sample in cycles.  Maybe that cycle is a harmonic of a particular
frequency the machine is trying to measure.  Maybe that doesn't
matter.  What ever, it is a probably a problem of machines a
skeptic aural tuner says.


----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph Garrett <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 3:49 PM
Subject: Unison Flatter than each Individual string?


> I have seen the phenomenon of two/three strings being "flatter"
then each,
> individually. And, I accept Dr. Sanderson's explanation of the
reason for
> the effect, more or less. However, I have also seen a reverse
phenomenon of
> the unison being "sharper" then the individual strings! Would
someone like
> to advance a theory on this????
> Best Regards,
> Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)