impedance and empericism -- longer

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Moody <remoody@midstatesd.net>
To: piano tech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: June 29, 2000 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: impedance and empericism -- longer


>
> I said "we" for a good reason.  The equipment I envision is far beyond my
> resources, a lab full and a team would be ideal.   But the first start of
> any research is to find out what research has already been done.  At least
I
> could give that a crack.
> You said,
> >" As the moisture content of the soundboard assembly changes, so does
it's
> >mass and  stiffness, and thus it's impedance and resonant frequency at
any
> >given point on the scale. All that is measurable, has been measured,
....."
>
> Was this pubished?  Where?---ric
>
----------------------------------------------------

I can't say whether information such as this has been published or not.
Personally, I doubt that any manufacturer would waste the time or money
investigating the subject.  While this sort of thing may be of academic
interest to the piano tuner who has too much mental time on his/her hands
while wading through a tuning or to the university professor looking for a
project, it has no direct bearing on either designing or building a piano.

In addition to what Robert Scott said in his post I would add only that it
might be helpful to keep in mind that the soundboard is the driven member,
not the driver.  The soundboard responds by moving slightly as the strings
attached to the bridge vibrates.  It does not necessarily respond to all of
the vibrating energy in the string equally and, in fact, may well choose to
ignore some of that vibrating energy completely, but the source of the
energy is the vibrating energy within the strings.  Left to itself, the
soundboard doesn't really do much except cause problems when the weather
changes.

The chances of getting a piano manufacturer to investigate and research
something like this would be, I suspect, even more remote than getting one
or more of them to fund something like the research Steven Birkett has
proposed.  At least with that project there would be the promise of
obtaining data that would help them build better pianos.  About the only way
this would get done is for the interested people (you and whoever else you
could sufficiently interest in the subject) to get together and design the
appropriate experiments, fund them, build them, conduct them and analyze
them.  You might interest some of the university professors who have shown
interest in the piano over the years, but they usually have their own pet
projects to pursue.  You might interest PTG in starting an R&D department,
but I doubt that you will live long enough to see such a suggestion through
committee.

I hate to say it, but this is an industry that is showing less and less
interest in continuing active investigation into the workings of the product
it produces.  After all, the design of the piano was perfected by the early
1930s so there is really no need to continue trying to develop it any
further.  Perfection cannot be improved on, can it?

Good luck,

Del