Treble Resonator

[Ron Nossaman]

>But the resonator part of it I don't quite "get", i.e., once the 
>vibrations of the rims [why plural?] are propagated through the bell in a 
>longitudinal direction [which direction is that?  from the base to the apex?

The theory is (and in practice works very well) that the term resonates in 
the minds of the public even though the bell does nothing more than mass 
couple the rim to the middle or the plate so the too flexible plate doesn't 
absorb the string energy from an area of the scale that the already too 
flexible soundboard and belly bar gets first chance at. A good old non sexy 
non-marketable beam there that braced the belly bar and supported a good 
old non-sexy non-marketable nose bolt would have been a much better choice 
from a performance and production standpoint, but they wouldn't have been 
able to make it resonate in the minds of the public nearly as effectively. 
I have no way of really knowing, but I suspect that exotic looking bell 
sold a lot of pianos all by itself. Altogether an excellent marketing choice.


>     Several years ago, a rep from Steinway explained this in the 
> "Steinway patents" class at the National in Albuquerque or Kansas City, 
> but I forget the particulars.
>     --David Nereson, RPT

Me too. I just recall a vague horror at some of what I was hearing. Of 
course it's not just Steinway, by a long shot. It has always seemed sad to 
me that when a bunch of technicians attend a convention or seminar to try 
to learn something real, we are so often bombarded with marketing by the 
very people presuming to teach.

Ron N