[CAUT] More Duplex

[David Love]

Could you elaborate on what you mean exactly in the first paragraph vis
rocking rather than sharp bending and inharmonicity.  I'm not sure I quite
understand what you are saying.  Do you mean to say that a rocking motion,
i.e. a slight change in the effective speaking length of the string as it is
vibrating, will increase the inharmonicity and that the shorter the length
the more likely that is?  

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 James
Ellis
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 12:04 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] More Duplex

Hey Folks,

After all the arguments and discussions re the front duplex scale, here is
something "youall" missed.

The front duplex scale in the high treble does, or I believe should, alter
the inharmonicity a little bit by reducing the bending moment of the wire
at the front termination - i.e., a rocking motion rather than a sharp
bending motion.  The shorter the speaking length of the string, the more
effect I would expect this to have.  But I'm not going to get up on my soap
box and crow about it until I have had a chance to do some controlled
experiments to either prove or disprove it, and I don't know when that will
be.

It might even have another advantage in those cases where the piano gets
regular beatings and strings break at the front termination.  But on the
other hand, the worst case of this that I have ever seen was on a Steinway,
so I retract that supposition.  That piano was only a few years old, but it
had literally had the stuffings beaten out of it - flat knuckles - string
grooves in the hammers half way to the wood - broken strings all over the
place - front key bushings all chewed up, a bent pedal, etc.

As for the rear duplex, I don't see how it could make any difference
regarding inharmonicity.  The rear duplex is just as misunderstood, if not
more so, than the front one is.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis