High Treble Unisons - attack or sustain?

[Alan Barnard]

Strings DO have their own personalities and, just to make it more
interesting, they seem to behave differently when played alone than they do
within the unison.

One thing: You might check string leveling and hammer alignment. If the the
hammer isn't hitting squarely onto level strings, there will be an
out-of-phase effect on tone quality and, probably, sustain. Although how
high up the treble this can be noticeable, I do not know.

I have to keep reminding myself that at least half of "voicing" is
regulation and alignment. And sometimes small adjustments make a big
difference.

My theory (only that) is that strings in-phase keep errant pitch drift and
noticeable wildness to a minimum by the coupled harmonic effect. I may be
all wet, others feel free to comment, but it makes sense to me. I know that
often, when a tenor unison is whiney (that Wurlitzer Whine we've grown to
love), you can gently press the hammer to the strings and pluck them
individually -- ting, ting, toink -- and spot the unevenness of the strike.
A little string leveling and/or targeted hammer filing and the tone of the
unison is improved--I assume by better alignment of the higher partials. 

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri