Ssssssnnn :) Hmmm... I am not at all sure I buy your reasoning here. I dont see how you could possibly contrive a fair test comparing say a Bluthner Aliquot instrument with any other non Aliquot instrument in the first place. Perhaps you could do a statistical study comparing say 500 instruments of each type and see if there were any significant (in the statistical sciences sense of the word) tendancies... but one up on another leaves way to many variables out there bubbling around. On the other hand... if a piano designed with the extra string with the express purpose of this increasing sustain.... well then one would at the very least expect that if the extra string was removed then sustain would go down. Especially if one was to expect this same result if one was to simply mute off the string in the first place me thinks. But I underline... I'm no expert on the subject. Curious to know tho... from whomever might know... just how are the ribs and soundboard designed for the fourth string. Every Bluthner I've ever run into had negative bearing for the 4th string... ie the darn things were pulling up on the soundboard. Cheers RicB Susan continues the dialouge with : Well, yes but ... I presume that the question we first asked each other was whether the fourth string aided sustain compared to a piano designed and built with only three strings in the high treble. You can't take off the fourth string from a four-string piano and make it just like a piano originally designed for three strings. The bridges are spaced for four strings, and (I assume) the soundboard and ribs are designed for four strings. sssssssnnn
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