Voicing and Inharmonicity

[Marcel Carey]

Dear Bill & list:

The way I see it, the only thing that voicing does is change the contact
time between strings and hammer. To me, what this does is allow the hammer
to dampen some nodes of the harmonics in the strings. When a hard hammer
contact the string, it uses the string's energy to be pused back. When
properly voiced, the hammer will push itself away when the string is at it's
maximum extension. This is why a poorly voiced hammer won't produce as much
volume. It is using string's energy just to get away from the string. On the
other end, a too soft hammer will stay in contact even when the string is
coming back to it's original position thus damping and mufling the harmonic
content.

So in the end, it is a question of balance and taste. I try to get the
hammer to stay in touch with the string just long enough to get the maximum
volume. The attack can then be regulated just by surface voicing or "Doping".

Maybe my way of thinking makes sense. I'm still tryng to understand.


Marcel Carey, RPT

At 23:48 97-03-09 -0500, you wrote:

>I'm curious. The inharmonicity (the ratios among the patrial frequencies)
>is a fnction of the actual material  which vibrates (either carbon steel
>or L'Eggs Nylon), its tension, and the nature of its termniations
>(especially ,the mass and behavior of the soundboard panel). The hammer
>contributes nothing to the actual raios and really does nothing more than
>start the string in motion.