| > > Greetings, | > > Gabriel Weinreich (I hope I am spelling it | > right), published "The Coupled | > > Motion Of Piano Strings" in the late 70's. The | > gist of his research was that | > > the coupled motion required, at times, that the | > strings not be tuned to the | > > exact same pitch in order to produce the longest | > sustain and clearest | > > sounding tone. Also piano strings rarely have a pure tone. If you listen to a single string long enough you may hear a slow beat. Sometimes different on different blows. There have been studies on how the string vibrates. It does go up and down but some believe the up and down axis rotates slowly. I thought, correct me if I am wrong, Baldwin took out a patent on winding bass strings that influenced this "rotation". I remember ads in Music Trades about 15 years ago. Haven't heard of it since. I believe the Wapin patent addresses this, or influences this. The other consideration is that the hammer rarely strikes the string the same. More correctly it probably rarely rebounds from the string the same. The shank flexes from the inertia of key strike to the bending on impact that in imagination rubs the hammer up anddown the string. This of course is a mm or less. The shank being wood might flex in a twisting direction depending on how uneven the bushings might be or the grain favoring that twist. Many variables, some you can do something about some you can't. Some is research to create electronic semblence of piano sound. ---ric
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