[CAUT] Getting straight

[Richard Brekne]

Hey Fred,

    Hi Ric,
    This was a controlled experiment with solid terminations. So Jim 
    Ellis has taken termination (and any soundboard or bridge
    influences)  out of the picture, and has been able to produce,
    consistently, a  "false" beating string based only on a single
    parameter: a rotation  away from vertical and horizontal of the
    residual curl of the wire.  That's how I interpret his article.  

Yes I agree, and he makes a statement to that affect in the article as 
well. The soundboard and bridge influence is taken out of the picture.


     Now in real life, there may be multiple contributing factors, but 
    from the description of the experiment, it seems that Jim has 
    effectively isolated a single cause. As to exactly how that
    translates  to field experience, that is another question.

Good science I'd say really. Isolate a phenomenon first so as to 
identify as much as you can about it from that isolated perspective. 
Putting it into context later under controlled circumstance to observe 
further.

I can think of one <<next step>> right off.  Take the instance of false 
beat occurrence Jim has identify and purposely install it on a real 
piano (actually repeated many times) in order to see how often the (now 
known) falsely beating string results in an audible false beat. The 
purpose being to see if there is always correspondence between a string 
we know to be beating falsely and an audible false beat. If there is.. 
then the  strings condition becomes what we could indeed call a 
<<cause>> as it happens in each instance. If not... then we know there 
are other factors that must necessarily work in concert for the end 
audible false beat to occur.

Cheers
RicB


    Regards,
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm at unm.edu