[CAUT] Shank Pitch

[Ron Nossaman]

> Chris & all
>  
> I do know that to lower the pitch on a reed organ reed you scrape 
> material from the bass end of the reed making the mass of the end of the 
> tongue heavier in relation to the overall reed and the pitch goes down.  
> I have never tried it on a hammer shank but I can see where the same 
> principle would apply.
>  
> Norman Cantrell

Hi Norman,
In the organ reed, scraping the tip of the reed removes mass, 
raising pitch. Scraping the base end of the reed decreases 
stiffness, lowering pitch.

Resonant frequency in anything is determined by a combination 
of stiffness and mass. In the case of hammer shanks, it would 
appear from the reported results that the loss of mass 
realized in thinning has a greater affect on "doink" pitch 
than the loss of stiffness.

I don't tune shanks, so I wasn't aware of this. I would have 
expected the shank pitch to drop. Interesting.
Ron N