[CAUT] False Beats and George Winston

[Jeff Tanner]

On Mar 19, 2007, at 12:20 PM, Ron Nossaman wrote:

> 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
>

That is what I thought.

>
>> 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.

My recollections here are that the pins remain high when the bridge  
shrinks back down.  Dry weather is when I seem to find pins floating  
up off the bottom needing to be tapped.  Is it not plausible that  
increased downbearing in humid seasons is what reduces the falseness?

>
> 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.

I am familiar with many of your writings on this subject on the  
lists, which is what changed my thinking on tapping strings at the  
bridge pins.  I suppose I haven't read your descriptions of how  
you've come to these conclusions, which is why I asked.  I  
unsubscribed from pianotech years ago.

>
>
>> 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.
>

It seems the pin would have to wallow the hole at the bottom if it is  
flagpoling at the top.  That energy has to go somewhere.

Without having a cross section to study, or a teeny weeny camera to  
go in and inspect the hole, I'm imagining each end of the pin  
flagpoling with the string vibration, somewhat like holding a pencil  
in the middle and "flicking" it.  Regardless of how many fingers or  
fists you hold it tightly with, the pointed end vibrates when you  
flick the eraser end unless the tip is anchored.  But having the  
sharpened end anchored, the movement of the eraser end is further  
restricted (and sound is transmitted more solidly), regardless of how  
tightly it is held nearer to the eraser.  The top of the pin cannot  
move nearly as much if the point is anchored at the bottom,  
regardless of how tight or loose it is at the cap.

A simplified comparison for sure.  But, such is my mind.
:u)

Jeff




Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina



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