[CAUT] Baldwin SD-10

[David Love]

Not sure I would agree with this.  Loss of energy to the front duplex in the
form of heat is simply lost.  It will not be stored in order to be reflected
back to the speaking length.  The idea of the tuned front duplex was that it
would vibrate sympathetically adding something to the overall tone.  In
reality, the sympathetic tuning actually encourages leakage and loss of
energy.  Detuning the duplex or shortening it or increasing the
counterbearing angle or increasing the mass in the capo bar (as in a
Boesendorfer) or some combination of all of these discourages "leakage"
reducing the potential loss of energy in that section.  

Differences between pianos in the sound in that section are more likely
because of differences in hammer/soundboard interactions than duplex design.
This is evidenced when one makes an alteration of an existing counterbearing
area, say in a Steinway.  There is no significant change in the overall tone
but the tendency for leakage can be greatly reduced.  

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of RicB
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 3:19 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Baldwin SD-10

snip...

The basic precept of the duplex idea as I understand it is that string 
energy is going to bleed past the capo no matter what you do.  The front 
duplex length then is meant to store some small amount of this and 
reflect it back to the speaking length.  Whatever relationship between 
speaking length and front duplex length was originally intended is 
perhaps less important then whether or not there is some positive effect 
for any given front length

snip...

As far as instruments very short front lengths like the Bechstein.  They 
have a different character to their sound.  One either likes it or does 
not... but comparing the two in the context of this discussion strikes 
me as difficult.  They are completely different types of playing fields.

Snip...

Cheers
RicB