Hi, Comments interspersed: At 02:37 PM 2/3/2006, you wrote: >At 10:59 PM 2/3/2006 +0100, you wrote: >>I dunno Susan... :) >> >>... just seems to me like if you want to make >>sure you know what (if any) effect the 4th >>string has on sustain for the regular unison >>strings you probably should just remove >>it. Damping it certainly inhibits any >><<feedback>> the 4th string might have but it >>doesnt stop the initial bleed off of energy >>from the unison. Just seems most likely you should remove them... >> >>Cheers >>RicB > >------------------ > >Well, yes but ... and...: >I presume that the question we first asked each >other was whether the fourth string aided >sustain compared to a piano designed and built >with only three strings in the high treble. That was my understanding, as well. >You can't take off the fourth string from a >four-string piano and make it just like a piano >originally designed for three strings. The >bridges are spaced for four strings, and (I >assume) the soundboard and ribs are designed for four strings. I am not sure if this latter is the case. Certainly the bridge is different, in some respects. >Suppose you wanted to see how a piano would >sound if it were a true una corda, that is, if >it only had one string on each note for the >whole compass. You couldn't remove two strings >from the tenor and treble, and one string from >the bichord section, and end up with the same >piano as one designed for only one string per >note (if such a strange animal ever were to be made ...) Actually that has been done a number of times. When I was more active in institutional work, I used to do it for demonstration purposes...it does get folks' attention. Also, I know specifically of one major contemporary venue in which this was done to the primary concert instrument...no, the technician who did it is no longer employed there. >Has anybody measured three- versus four-string >Blüthners to see if they make the boards and >ribs and rim differently? All that tension ... While I've not seen as many of these as are seen in Europe, I have seen a fair number of both over the years and am not totally convinced one way or the other...at least as to net differences in construction. There are definitely differences in terms of tone and, depending upon overall condition, sustain. Best. Horace >ssssnn > > >>ssssnn writes. >> >>I think that depends on what you are testing for, Ric. Are you testing for >>everything that the fourth string might do, such as board-loading, etc? Or >>do you feel that the main effect of the fourth string is from the >>sympathetic vibration, which affects coupling and the overtone profile? I >>doubt that having a muted fourth string has anything like as much of an >>effect as the openly ringing one does -- in fact, I know it doesn't, from >>having tuned with it muted and unmuted. >> >>sssssnn > >_______________________________________________ >Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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