eee-ahhh

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:10:10 +0100


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I think I know what you are trying to describe here Joe. And if I
understand you correctly then you are correct in stateing it's not
really falsness in the sense of a false beat. In anycase, there are
several kinds of falsness we have to deal with that are not beats in any
sense of the word.

You can try several things to attempt and locate the source of the
problem.

 If the string shares a hitchpin with one of its neigbors, then loosen
it and tighten the neighbor so that a short segment moves around the
hitchpin. This will put new string segments on the termination points,
and can change the way the string sounds. You can loosen the string and
pull it off the bridge so as to drip a small bit of CA glue into the
bridge pin holes. This usually is a <<cure>> for false beating, but can
have a positive affect on any falsness relating to the bridge pin /
bridge / string interface. Nicks in the bridge pin itself can cause
various types of falsness... a twist of the offending pin can sometimes
help. If there's a capo bar in this picture, or a pressure bar type
counterbearing top termination (upright)... you can loosen the string
and push it aside and reshape or clean up the termination point.  You
can also simply replace the string and see if that helps. It can even
end up being something you can address from a strictly tuning
perspective.... adjusting the vowel as it were.

Theres lots of other tricks to try, voiceing out,  changing a hammer
center pin .... sometimes you solve the problem without haveing a clue
as to what you really did...:)  Sometimes no matter what you do,nothing
seems to help. If it's  really annoying, I'd start by changing the
string, and check all the termination points while the string is off.
Make sure the customer knows that it may be beyond the realm of what
technicians can do to <<fix>> the situation... but that a few things can
be tried out.

Cheers
RicB

Joey Recker wrote:

>  Tuned a piano at a church in Plains last week.  I was extremely
> satisfied with the results (they turn the HVAC off all week and it
> hadn't been tuned in a week). Tonight after church the pianist
> mentioned to me how much better it sounded, but commented that one
> note sounded "funny". Initially, I didn't hear the problem...  (I
> think because the strings are definately in tune and I was listening
> for beats).  But after a few moments I detected what she is talking
> about.  When you first hit the key, it quickly goes "eee-ahhh".  Every
> other note just says "ahh" (yeah, I know this sounds stupid, but I
> can't think of any other way to describe it).  It happens very quickly
> and is almost undetectable, but SHE noticed it, so it is now important
> to me.  It's like the note has two syllables instead of just one pure
> syllable.It quickly gets to the ahhh... and there are no further beats
> in the tone when played by itself or when checking octaves so I don't
> think it's what we would normally call a false beat. Sorry if this
> doesn't explain things properly...  but does anyone have any
> suggestions of things I should check?  I don't know where to
> start.ThanksJoey

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html


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