Hi David Try a very slight tap on the bridge pin itself, essentially enough to lower it about a 10th of a mm if you get my meaning. I find this works actually quite often way up there and suspect it has to do with some micro level impreciseness of the termination. If the bridge pin is notched for example due to years of wear and tear, and is essentially holding the string in that notch (as would be expected I suppose), and if that notch is such that it effectively lessens the solidity of the string to bridge face interface... well you see where I am going. I dont really see an internal resonance (as I understand the term to mean) being a part of this.... but then I haven't really looked at what kinds of resonances bridge pins themselves are capable of either ... :) That said... ... I think it would be cool if Jim Ellis chimed in with some perspectives on how a string itself (independent of the termination per se') can <<cause>> a single string beat. Cheers RicB By coincidence, I was experimenting with just such a false beat this morning on a newly rebuilt Steinway L fro the '20's. On note C#7, treble-most string had a beat of appoximately 6-7 bps. There was no change in adding mass (as screwdriver) to any other part of the system. In fact even touching the bass of the bridge pin with varying amount of force and from different directions produced virtually no change. What did accelerate the beat rate was moving the screwdriver up the pin towards the top. The pin did not seem to be loose. It seems possible that some aspect of the pin sets up an internal resonance that could interact with the frequencies created by that string. I'd love to try something like pulling the pin and changing the length, or take complete measurements of weight, length and diameter, and then alter one at a time. Well, I mean note the changes of weight and length. What's interesting too, is that sometimes, a blade placed on top of pin of a vibrating string vibrates quite noticeably, and at other times, such as this, not. As far as your theory, I'm not sure I see how that might work. Care to elaborate? David Skolnik Hastings on Hudson, NY --
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