voiceing

[Ron Nossaman]

>I was thinking "meta"physically. As you would expect, when I pound, I can
>get more of a yelp from the beast. The initial burst of sound I'm
>understanding as being Woof. In this case the bark is worse than the bite. I
>was using the U3 as an example to refine or redefine my terminology for
>voicing. So PLEASE correct me.

Ok, I got it now. I'm not entirely sure there is any universally approved
terminology in voicing. I always have to work out a "translation table"
with each customer each time it comes up. They all know exactly what
they're hearing, and they all use entirely different terminology to
describe it. That low tenor woof is likely string scaling. Low tensions (%
of breaking tension) in the wire trichords will give that hollow sound,
while the wrapped strings just below are at a higher %break, and sound much
better. I don't know of any hammer voicing tricks to make this go away.
I've managed some apparent improvements with the usual brushing, steaming,
or needling, but it is never really satisfactory to me. Super hard hammers
don't help this much either. I usually start with a light brushing with a
small brass bristle brush to try to hear past the clang and see what I have
to work with. Sometimes just the brushing helps enough to get me off the
hook. Sometimes not. Some techs are very good at temporarily disguising
scale and soundboard design problems with voicing, but I never was.

Low soundboard impedance problems produce a similar kind of sound, so it is
often hard to tell what you're hearing. Those hollow sounding couple of
notes on either side of a plate strut where the bridge is deeply notched
are a low impedance effect. The bridge is too flexible there. Killer octave
(5-6---) voicing problems are likely soundboard impedance problems too, but
could be too hard hammers, string level, or front duplex effects. Low tenor
voicing problems across the break can be low impedance, scaling, or both -
just to add to the confusion. 

I'd proceed cautiously.

Ron N