[CAUT] False Beats and George Winston

[David Ilvedson]

I'm having a lot of success with tapping bridge pins with a nail set and small hammer.   This morning on a CFIII with one particular string in the high treble, tapping the bridge pin did not help the situation.   Lifting the string at the capo help clean it up though...I lifted all 3 strings.   

Seeing as it is Sunday, I will now testify that I rarely seat strings at the bridge anymore...The gospel according to Ron has slowly seeped in...and tapping bridge pins or CA works without damaging the bridge cap.

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: RicB <ricb at pianostemmer.no>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 3/18/2007 5:25:48 AM
Subject: [CAUT]  False Beats and George Winston


>Hi  all


>False beats and falseness in general has become rather a special 
>interest of mine since meeting various view points on the subject via 
>this and the pianotech list through the years.  In general, I have come 
>to lean very heavily in the direction being very careful about anything 
>to do with the terminations themselves.

>The bridge termination is especially easy to damage, or worsen.  If the 
>idea of any procedure relating to the string at the bridge pin is to 
>increase the solidity and precision of the termination, then it strikes 
>me as very odd indeed that so many of the things we have been advised to 
>do through the years do the opposite, and perhaps do other things as well.

>Some of you have read my article on the subject which attempts not to 
>take sides on the issue in general, but illustrate some consequences of 
>conditions that can be created by various seating procedures.  In 
>general I would be very skeptical to any pressure put on the string out 
>on its speaking length with the single exception of light pressure away 
>from the bridge pin... and not towards it.

>With all respect to my friends who have other takes... I'll say the 
>following...

>The bend around the pin idea has never made sense to me. It is very easy 
>to show that on the very first movement of the tuning pin, any kink or 
>bend created no longer resides exactly at the bridge pin... hence one 
>has decreased termination precision and simply put a probably unwanted 
>kink in the string. Further the pressure needed to create a bend will 
>far too significantly stress the wood at the bridge surface area where 
>the bridge pin enters, with all the potential for contributing to a 
>springy termination that carries with it. It is a recipe for creating 
>false beats. The same can be said for any seating procedure that causes 
>an indentation on the bridge surface that is lower then the deflection 
>line the string will take from its highest point of deflection on the 
>bridge to the front termination. This simply creates a recessed notch 
>condition.

>Front termination procedures need to vary depending on the type of 
>termination you are dealing with. Capo terminations are quite a bit more 
>varied then one might think. There are hard and wide U shapes, thin and 
>not so hard V shapes and various counter bearing schemes that are meant 
>to work with either. And there are solutions in between.  Ron Overs uses 
>for example a very hard and quite thin V shape, which requires a lower 
>counter bearing angle.  In general tho.. the front termination needs to 
>be precise as possible. 

>It is precision of terminations, and in the case of the bridge a 
>sufficient enough degree of massyness that primarily influence the 
>presence or lack of falseness.  The strings themselves can also be the 
>problem...in which case it is better to simply change the string then 
>start bending, stressing, banging, or scraping various termination elements.

>In your Yamaha, I would suggest the following for the top octave.  
>Remove all strings, and assuming the bridge surface does not have very 
>deep indentations that prohibit significant improvement without dealing 
>with these, CA the bridge pin holes as much as the wood will take.. or 
>remove pins and epoxy new ones of same size in again.  While the strings 
>are off re-profile the capo. The Yamaha uses a wide and rounded 
>termination and the cleaner it is from grooves the better. One can not 
>remove much or hardly any of the string contact area of the capo without 
>forcing a re-hardening of the capo, but one can remove enough to get rid 
>of the worst of the grooving.  Remove the harsh edges of any grooves so 
>that only the path of the groove remains visible. The speaking side of 
>the termination can be pretty sharply profiled, despite the design 
>calling for a U termination. I file a flat angle off first, and then 
>very very lightly smooth this with something in the neighborhood of 400 
>grit paper / emorycloth / what ever your preference.  I don't over pull 
>new strings much when installing them, nor do I do a lot of stretching. 
>And what stretching I do is in a direction away from the bridge pin, and 
>as little downwards as possible.

>If the string is free of defect, the bridge pin /notch are precisely in 
>the same position, the bridge pin/bridge assembly massy enough, and the 
>front termination clean and precise... then you will have as clean a 
>sound as you can get out of any given instrument.

>Cheers
>RicB