[CAUT] False beats

[RicB]

Hi Jim.

    I'm reading the comments about false beats, and I want to add just one
    more, which does not disagree with anything said so far.  Anything,
    and I
    mean ANYTHING, that causes the string's vibration to wander out-of-plane
    and take on an orthoghnal mode where it's frequency in one plane is not
    quite the same as in another plane, will cause a false beat.

    Jim Ellis

This is exactly my point, and as I read Rons theorizing on all this your 
statement does disagree in as much as his theory states that by 
definition a single string beat that responds to sideways pressure of a 
screwdriver *is* and *always is* caused by flag poling of the pin. Yet 
observation of such instances reveal that this simply is not  *always* 
or even nearly so the case. 

Adding mass to the immediate proximity around the terminate point of 
such single string beats often, and I mean very often, quiets, slows 
down, or completely eliminates the beat. But how on earth can that 
effect whatever flag poling is or isn't happening ?  And why on earth 
does increased pressure on the screwdriver beyond the point where the 
beat stops cause it to start up and speed up again ?  Further, for this 
theory to be correct this particular kind of single string beat (false 
beat)  simply must always be a result of horizontal in phase movement 
only. It relies on the bridge pin hole at the surface being oblong in 
this direction yielding only possibility of movement in that direction. 
Yet measurements of this kind of thing show that the in phase vibration 
of the termination can happen in any direction and are not restricted to 
the horizontal.  In fact there is a whole list of questions that do not 
find their answer in this absolutist kind of claim.

Misunderstand me not.  I do not dispute that what Ron says can happen.  
I dispute that it does happen in this way in the absolute fashion that 
it is presented.  Which I believe, agrees quite well with your post. The 
single string false beat, the one that responds to screwdriver pressure, 
is a result of a more general condition of springyness at the 
termination as a whole, and not solely because of any specific condition 
that can contribute to that overall springyness.

Now I am more then willing to be shown wrong here.  But there are 
several contradictory phenomena that can be observed that will need to 
be explained adequately, and not just ignored or simply discounted.  I 
dont see that it does any of us any good to discover that for years and 
years we have been under one set of misunderstandings about what false 
beats are about, only to replace these with another set of 
misunderstandings.

Respectfully to all concerned, and as usual Cheers !
RicB