>My son asked an interesting question: how does RH affect the tone of wood? >We're all familiar with the effects of dimensional changes, but say you just >had a wooden xylophone, where each piece of wood was unconstrained at all >edges. Would the tone be different at 10%RH and 80%RH, and if so, how? > >--Cy Shuster-- Hi Cy, Easy enough to try it and find out. Since the MC level of wood affects both it's modulus of elasticity and mass, changes in MC should affect the resonant frequency of wooden xylophone bars. Should be measurable with an ETD. Trouble is, it won't tell you much that's applicable to pianos, since there isn't anything made of wood in a piano that's supposed to resonate at a specific frequency. The tone quality of pianos certainly changes with MC swings, but for different reasons. Ron N
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