[pianotech] Tuning the duplex sections

[David Love]

Yes, that's right of course, went too far with that idea.  

So then why exactly does muting the front duplex kill the tone?  Even a
light muting in which the rocking motion is presumably unimpeded.  What does
the front duplex contribute in that case (when it's unmated) and how does it
contribute.  Similarly, why does muting the front duplex in a piano with a
very short duplex not kill the tone nor does the tone suffer, seemingly,
from having a very short front duplex.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com



>...The front duplex by the same token probably receives some energy 
>from the changes in air pressure from the surrounding air.  The 
>difference is that the front scale is not attached directly to a 
>flexible diaphragm as the soundboard but rather the plate which is 
>acoustically dead, in effect.  Doesn't that make sense?

I'd say, as I think others have recently said, that the vibration of 
the front section of a string comes from direct mechanical 
transmission of stress in the speaking length of the same string 
across the front bridge by what has been called a 'rocking' motion or 
see-saw effect and that any direct excitation by the sound waves in 
the air is infinitesimal.  And this can quite easily be demonstrated 
by experiment.