<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19019"></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=role_body bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 3/15/2011 6:09:58 P.M. Central Daylight Time, davidlovepianos@comcast.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>So then why exactly does muting the front duplex kill the tone?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>David:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I can parse this question a little, wouldn't it be better asked, what does the muting effect? In my experience, no science here, the muting dramatically diminished the <U>sustain</U>, but the voice overall remains pretty much the same, except for the consequential sustain curve change. The "noise" of the front duplex, the counterbearing segment, is inaudible to an audience, very audible to a player, and the muting of the segment diminishes the resonant "throw" of the piano audibly (this I've experienced several times in different venues with different pianos). </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Paul</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>