Steinway legless bridge

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Jenneetah

Thanks for the refreshing response there.  Nice to hear commentary on 
this kind of subject that isnt loaded with prejudice and bias. This was 
not your usual... either/or response.

btw... the half beat description of piano << bloom >> below sat 
particularilly well.  Nice description for voicing students as well me 
thinks

Cheers
RicB

Jenneetah wrote:

> At 12:54 AM +0200 8/2/04, Richard Brekne wrote:
>
>> Yes... but I wonder... if you heard both types of Steinways side by 
>> side... blindtest so you didnt know which was which... what you would 
>> like best and why
>
>
> That's the old question abut what sounds better, the cold motionless 
> unison or the one which breathes slightly. Which is related to the 
> question, is there any such thing as a pure unison, or is it, like the 
> pure octave, a myth.
>
> Me, I like a little breathing in my tuning. It's the difference 
> between Snow White before and after she's kissed by Prince Charming. 
> But with 6:3 octaves from the temperament on down and 3:1 for the 
> upper half, I get enough breathing (signs of life) out of the octaves, 
> not to need them in the unisons as well.
>
> Yes I regularly tune both types on one particular stage 
> http://www.yellowbarn.org/. Both Ds, one a 1924 with a bias notched 
> mid-treble section and the other a 1963. That's not your blindfold 
> test, but I'd guess that if I were put to a blindfold test, what I'd 
> notice in that mid-treble section is less a rolling in the unisons 
> than the actual bloom of the sound, the actual initial swell of the 
> sound as a well adjusted attack makes it possible.
>
> The big ear-opener for me was a Kawai voicing class at the 2002 
> NEECRegCofenerece, by Don Mannino and a Shigeru tech. After proper 
> shoulder work, the tone actually swelled outwards in what could be 
> described as the first half cycle of a false beat. But there was no 
> second half or any further cycles to follow. Nothing but a beautifully 
> variable attack.
>
> As far as bias notching's effect on tuning, it doesn't slow me down. 
> In unison tuning I'm always zero-beating the highest partial I can 
> hear which in the region (nowadays) is the 3d. Zero-beat the third and 
> the 1st rolls objectionably, do the 2d instead and the 1st begins to 
> behave itsel           f.Zero-beatthefirst,whileIcanheartheothertwo
> boogieing away, I figure that's not audible more than ten feet off. 
> What I check for in this situation is that any motion in the unisons 
> doesn't interfere with consistency in the motion of octaves.
>
>> .... curious as always.
>
>
> Nothing like a curious cat to pull on a new thread ;-)
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