[CAUT] Lack of low frequency response

[Richard Brekne]

The hammers on the instrument I am actually dealing with are very very 
light and very very soft. I mean they are so squisshy soft you wouldnt 
believe it. So in this particular instance we are not talking about any 
match between the board and the hammers.  And in general, instruments 
like Zimmermans and some of its cousins in the old northern European 
communist bloc countries have this same quality and no amount of hammer 
work will change that more then very marginally.

No... this is purely board related.. and the subject matter I am 
interested in is purely board related.  I want to know more about what 
kinds of design elements a soundboard can have that go in this 
direction.  The usual direction we start looking at seems to have to do 
with too much stiffness/thickness... etc.  But perhaps the advice I'm 
getting from down under points to another plausible cause.... lack of 
stiffness in a particular direction relative to the strings in a 
selected area of the instrument.  So... thats what I want to hear and 
learn more about.

Thanks for the fine post otherwise tho.

Cheers
RicB


    It can be that the hammers are not a good match for the board, as it
    seems
    to have been in your case.  A softer hammer will help filter out
    some of the
    unwanted upper partials that, I assume, contributed to the "mean"
    quality.
    Often, a nasally sound has to do with lack of resilience in the
    hammer which
    influences hammer string contact time and how the tone develops.  Of
    course
    soundboard response can't be overlooked either.  I like to think of
    tone as
    having three phases: attack, development, sustain.  The interaction
    between
    the hammer and the soundboard can influence all three phases.  For
    example,
    a harsh attack can be a function of a loose board or a too hard
    hammer but
    is usually some combination.  A distorted development phase can be a
    function of a hammer which is too heavy for the board and sustain
    problems
    can be a function of a board which lacks adequate stiffness (or mass
    depending on the section) or a hammer which lacks proper resilience
    influencing hammer/string contact time, or both.  Whatever the case,
    matching the hammer to the board with a clear tonal goal in mind is
    important.  Obviously, voicing gives some wiggle room but should, in my
    view, be used mostly for the wiggle and not for the big shake. 
    Ideally, the
    hammer should start out pretty close to your tonal goal and
    depending on the
    soundboard response (and string scale) that requirement will change.