Yow-yow-yowing bass strings

[Carl Meyer]

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  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: BobDavis88@aol.com=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 2:20 PM
  Subject: Yow-yow-yowing bass strings


  Friends,

  Hep!   Hep!   (Okay, I grew up in Texas)

  I don't think I can hep you but I have comments and questions.

  I'm not sure I know what the sound is.  Would you classify it as a =
false beat? What rate is it? Is it the same rate for all bad notes? Did =
you try tuning it 25 cents sharp and then 25 cents flat to see any =
change?  A longitudinal vibration will not change frequency with tuning.

  There is a device I've long wanted to build.  It would be a mike fed =
to a preamp and a tunable filter connected to a tight fitting fluid =
filled head phone.  This would allow you  to listen for and tune (with =
the filter) in the offending sound to identify frequency and possibly =
identify the source.  There are many uses for this and I now have even =
more reasons to build it.  Other than that I don't have a clue.

  Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG
  Santa Clara, California
  cmpiano@attbi.com=20


  I need an accurate scientific explanation for why SOME single bass =
strings go yow-yow-yow, when played by themselves.

  A new customer I am about to go see, with a new Steinway B, said he =
wanted me to maybe replace some bass strings that were "wobbling." I =
thought, okay, unisons or voicing, but then he said they were singles. I =
realized I had accepted that sound for decades, and just tuned around =
it, considering it a shortcoming of shorter scales. Later that day, I =
listened to 5 B's, 4 L's, and a D, as well as a 7'4" Boesendorfer.

  All the Steinways had yowing singles, but not necessarily on the same =
notes. Some notes would be clear. The D was the best of the Steinways, =
reasonably clear, and the B=F6sendorfer was extremely clean.

  The Steinways are single-wrapped and the B=F6s is double-wrapped, but =
I also listened to some 126 cm Bostons, which are double-wrapped, and =
they had random wows too.

  I've always chalked it up to "inharmonicity" or longitudinal waves or =
something like that, but I realized that doesn't really work, and now =
it's driving me crazy not to be able accurately to explain this. What is =
happening, and why is the B=F6sendorfer so clean?

  Wobbling in Stockton CA,
  Bob Davis



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