[CAUT] Getting straight

[Richard Brekne]

I would like to know more closely just what kind of false beat this 
exact <<cause>> is referring to. In particular whether or not this false 
beat responds to a change in posture / mass of the compound bridge 
termination most commonly found in pianos.

Strikes me as important to re-read his opening statements as to the 
basics of what false beats actually are.  If, and I think he is, he is 
referring to the classic false beat that we talk about so often... then 
we are quickly in a range of contributing factors and not into distinct 
causes per sé. 

Let me illustrate. 

If a false beat ala the kind Jim describes is also (simultaneously) the 
kind that responds to a screwdriver being pressed onto the bridge pin 
then clearly there are at least two factors involved in this particular 
type of instance. One... the false beat occurs when the curl is at a 
particular orientation to the string plane AND the false beat occurs 
given a given massyness condition at the bridge termination (which can 
be affected by addition/subtraction as demonstrated by the screwdriver).

This condition, if occurant  then clearly shows that the classic false 
beat is not caused by any one thing at all, but by a given combination 
of events that allows the basic condition of the false beat as defined 
to occur.

If this eventually can be shown to be true... then it may be possible 
(tho I do not say that it actually is) to identify some exclusionary 
condition which preempts the false beat condition from occurring at all. 
In other words.. by looking at the requirements for the phenomenon, one 
may be able to find a way of ruling out them being filled in the first 
place.

It should be remembered that Jims experimental environment could not 
account for the influence of the bridge itself, the soundboard, and the 
interaction of the two in the end vibration that is transmitted out into 
the air.  It is entirely possible then that a string that is beating 
such that two errant but close frequencies is present, but the expected 
resultant false beat is canceled by some mechanism laying between the 
string and its apparent termination, and the end sound we hear.

Cheers
RicB