Evidence of overlacquered hammers

[David Love]

My understanding is that the soundboard is a transducer, not an
amplifier--there is no added energy--it's function is to convert energy
of the vibrating string into a larger moving body which has the ability
to move the air which the string by itself does not possess in
sufficient quantity.  The panel's ability to do that is a function of
several factors including:  panel thickness, rib dimensions and
stiffness, crown, spring rate, type of rim, location of bridges and
probably other things which I have forgotten.  Not all soundboards will
move with the same efficiency and some will move too much--or some areas
of the panel will.  The hammer imparts a blow to the strings and the
energy imparted is a function of hardness, mass or both.  A panel which
moves less efficiently will require more mass, density or both from the
hammer in order to achieve the same displacement of air by its motion
than a panel that moves more efficiently for which a softer hammer will
achieve the same result.  How the partials develop is a somewhat
different issue, which I am not addressing here.

So, if not all panels are created equal, then one hammer will not yield
the same result on different panels.  How much different the panels need
to be to be able to hear that is another issue.    

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of antares
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 12:52 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Evidence of overlacquered hammers


On 1-okt-04, at 21:41, Bernhard Stopper wrote:

> The time, the hammer is in contact with the string is the main effect 
> of how
> many partials and in what weight they will occur. The soundboard
> itself has absolutely no possibiliy to add any partials to the strings
> spectrum (except the short shock spectrum caused by the hammer impact)

> and
> acts only as an amplifier and filter. But the oscillator is the
string.
>
> best regards
>
> Bernhard Stopper
>

Exactly. Thank you for your clear explanation Bernhard!

André Oorebeek

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