It might have something to do with some kind of phasing between the soundboard and the strings. Some impedance characteristics of the soundboard assembly might just put it slightly out of phase with the strings from the point of attack. With the two systems just out of phase at the first input of energy, the bloom occurs when they come back in sync. That might only happen once at the point of attack or it might happen continuously as the two phase in and out of sync. The later phasings may not be pronounced but might yet exist and could be the quality that some people refer to when they describe a piano as having a lot of "resonance" (I'm aware of that term being problematic so let's not go there) or of it being lively. The first thing to identify is just *what* is bloom from a mechanical point of view. Then you can start talking about *why* things bloom. It could be just the luck of the draw and the particular characteristics of that board that produces that sequence and relationship to the string scale. There doesn't seem to be a particular make of piano that has a claim on bloom. It happens sometimes but other times it doesn't. It may be more likely with certain types of scales or soundboard weightings (say, light versus heavy) which might explain why it happens less on Yamahas with heavy scales and boards and virtually no panel thinning, than Steinways which are lighter in weight with lots of panel thinning. It would seem, if this is the explanation, that greater freedom of movement of the board would be more likely to produce it. I have noticed this sense of bloom less on heavier ribbed RC&S boards FWIW. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com On 3/15/2011 3:42 AM, John Delacour wrote: > So my question (and my surprise) remains. Why does good piano x bloom > when I lift the dampers and good piano y wither?
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