[CAUT] False Beats and George Winston

[Ron Nossaman]

>> Whether the pin is at the bottom of the hole or not makes no 
>> difference acoustically, though that's the illusion and everyone's 
>> conclusion when bottoming pins clears up a beat. 
>>
> 
> Hi Ron,
> Have you been able to prove this? or is it educated speculation? 

No, not speculation. For probably 20 years now, I haven't 
bottomed bridge pins and filed the top. I've drilled the holes 
deeper than necessary, and driven the pins to height. These 
installations haven't proved to be any more prone to false 
beating than bottoming pins and filing. Less so, I'd say. 
These days, I'm using epoxy laminated veneer caps, still 
drilling deeper than necessary, and driving pins to final 
height. I've done this for only about three years now, but 
haven't had a single report of a false beat anywhere so far.


> It 
> certainly seems that the pin needs to be anchored to help avoid 
> wallowing out the hole.  

It won't wallow out of the hole even when it's loose enough to 
fall out if turned upside down with the string removed. If 
pins did that, we'd be sweeping them up off of the floor by 
the handful.


>Since the wood is softer than the pin, the pin 
> would be the more stable of the two simultaneous terminations, unless it 
> is flagpoling around because it isn't anchored in the hole.

In the case of those myriad cases where touching the pin with 
the screwdriver and/or seating the string kills the beat, It 
*is* flagpoling. That's what causes the beat


> But that is definitely hypothesis.  I have noticed that if the hole has 
> been drilled too deep (or the pin cut too short) and the pin can't make 
> contact, the falseness will not be eliminated.
> 
> Jeff

Only if the pin isn't tight in the cap at the cap surface. The 
pin won't stay bottomed in the hole in any case because the 
bridge height changes through seasonal humidity cycles. When 
it's dry, the bridge is shorter and the pin is bottomed in the 
hole. When it's humid, the bridge is taller, and the pin is 
short of the bottom of the hole. This is because the point of 
zero relative movement between the bridge and the pin is 
somewhere around the cap/root glue joint. Note that false 
beats are more numerous in dry seasons, when the pins are 
bottomed, and less numerous in humid seasons, when the pins 
are not.

I've written this all at great length and in excruciating 
detail about forty times over in the Pianotec archives, so 
until I get that series of Journal articles done and 
published, I'll direct you there.

Ron N