Musical Soundwaves

[gordon stelter]

Dear Fellow Techs,
     The University here has an 1896 Steinway B in
which someone installed a Teflon (TM) action back in
the 60's. It is all gummed up and otherwise does not
work properly, making the piano unplayable. I have a
barely used, excellent condition set of regular parts
to replace them, and am trying to convince  University
officials of the value of the labor involved,
including a hammer filing, thorough action regulation
and replacements of the backchecks. Your comments on
what this amount of work is worth would  be most
appreciated, and I will be showing these comments to
the aforementioned parties. I am a meticulous, careful
technician with 25 years experience.
     Most Sincerely,
     Gordon Lee Stelter
--- gordon stelter <lclgcnp@yahoo.com> wrote:
> No, its the varying overtone sequence which causes
> different instruments to sound different.
> --- Kdivad@AOL.COM wrote:
> > In a message dated Fri, 2 Aug 2002 8:10:24 AM
> > Eastern Standard Time, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
> > writes:
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Why does a flute sound like a flute? Why does an
> > obo sound like an obo? Why does a guitar sound
> like
> > a guitar? And last, but certainly not least, why
> > does a piano sound like a piano? 
> > > 
> > > Does anyone have a simplistic explanation for
> what
> > is the cause of unique sounds/tones among various
> > instruments? If you play A4 at a pitch of 440 Hz
> on
> > any instument, you will hear the pitch of 400 Hz.
> > But they will all sound different. So I guess they
> > all do something different to the soundwave that
> > reaches your ear. What is that difference? How
> does
> > a speaker 
> > > reproduce these differences of they only move in
> > and out?
> > > 
> > > Thanks for any thoughts.
> > > 
> > > Terry Farrell
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
> > 
> > Terry, a friend of mine attended a college course
> > where the instructor challanged the class to
> > determine the type of instrument being played just
> > by listening to a recorded tone (A 440) of each
> > instrument with the attack and decay portion of
> the
> > tone removed. No one in the class could
> distinguish
> > any of the instruments. I am not sure he is
> correct
> > but I wonder if what he said is perhaps a clue as
> to
> > one reason we can recognize different instruments.
> > 
> > David Koelzer
> > Vintage Pianos
> > DFW
> > 
> 
> 
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