[CAUT] Scientific Testing

[James Ellis]

This new thread, "Scientific Testing" derives from the previous one on
"Tuning the Back-lengths".

Ric Brekne and Mike Jorgensen struck a nerve in me with their latest posts
on this subject.  Ric, when you tested to see if plucking the string tails
would excite the speaking lengths of close neighboring speaking lengths,
did you test to see if the those tails were tuned dead on with the partial
frequencies of the speaking lengths of the strings they did NOT excite?  If
you are going to do that test, you need to be sure exactly which is tuned
to what, and how far away it is - how much and how little coupling occurs.
If no frequency component of the speaking length is resonant with the tail,
you are right.  It won't couple.  That also goes for the corresponding tail
and speaking length - that is, unless you have a faulty bridge termination.
 If the bridge termination is NOT solid, then yes, it will.  If the bridge
termination IS solid, then the coupling will occur in groups - not
individual speaking length to corresponding tail - but ONLY if the tails
are resonant with the speaking lengths.

Also Ric, you were right when your said, ..."deserves a bit of hard
science...and probably won't get much".  That's often the way is is, and
when people like Mike Jorgensen say things like, "scientific testing is
inadequate to prove false a claim made by many experienced persons", it
supports that scenario.  I strongly disagree with you, Mike, provided the
scientific testing is properly done.  All too many times it is not, and
therefore passes off as "scientific" when it is not.

For some 20 to 30 years prior to Decamber of 1997, it was an accepted
"fact" in PTG circles that all that bridle straps did was hold the wippens
up then the action was out of the piano.  That was the "correct" answer on
the PTG written test, and a few other tests at some schools you may have
heard of.  Please note that "fact" and "correct" are in quotation marks.

By the fall of 1997, I had had enough, and rather than waste any more of my
breath and just be told it was just my opinion that bridle straps did
anything more than hold the wippens up, I made the measurements, and
published my results.  That's when some answers on some tests got changed.
But it's been a struggle.  There are still those who want to say that
bridle straps don't do anything except hold the wippens up.  Well, that's
true - if they are improperly regulated, that is.

Ptolemy's geocentric universe was accepted astronony for centuries.  It was
"obvious".  You could - still can - just look up and see that the sun,
moon, and stars are right up there in that blue dome that surrounds the
earth, which is right in the middle of it all.  Well, Copernicus came along
and proved geocentricity all wrong.  Galileo taught what Copernicus taught,
and almost got himself killed.

Now, back to mundane stuff like string tails.  One of these days I might do
the measurements if I don't have something better to do.  Mike, I do have
the equipment and the ability to do it.  But to be publicly told that
"scientific testing is inadequate to prove false a claim made by many
experienced persons" is the most discouraging thing I have ever been told
since I have been in this business.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis