[CAUT] More Duplex

[Ric Brekne]

Hi Jim.

I didnt miss it, it just didnt seem to have a natural place to pop up in the disscussion. McMorrow makes a big point out of exactly this bit in his cections dealing with the profile of the front termination. Its part of his thinking along why string noises are independent of duplex sounds among other things.  A sharp thin (0.5mm) termination (according to this thinking) will allow the string to <<flex>> around the termination (as as opposed to bending over it) resulting in less inharmonicity in addition to providing a cleaner termination with regard to any eventual leakage to the termination itself (read buzzing). The termination becomes more of a pivot point then otherwise.

I wont get into his full descriptions... but its very much worth reading.  I've been a <<follower>> of his advice on these lines for around 20 years now... and find real life pianos correspond very well with his writings on this subject.

Cheers
RicB


Hey Folks,

After all the arguments and discussions re the front duplex scale, here is
something "youall" missed.

The front duplex scale in the high treble does, or I believe should, alter
the inharmonicity a little bit by reducing the bending moment of the wire
at the front termination - i.e., a rocking motion rather than a sharp
bending motion.  The shorter the speaking length of the string, the more
effect I would expect this to have.  But I'm not going to get up on my soap
box and crow about it until I have had a chance to do some controlled
experiments to either prove or disprove it, and I don't know when that will
be.

It might even have another advantage in those cases where the piano gets
regular beatings and strings break at the front termination.  But on the
other hand, the worst case of this that I have ever seen was on a Steinway,
so I retract that supposition.  That piano was only a few years old, but it
had literally had the stuffings beaten out of it - flat knuckles - string
grooves in the hammers half way to the wood - broken strings all over the
place - front key bushings all chewed up, a bent pedal, etc.

As for the rear duplex, I don't see how it could make any difference
regarding inharmonicity.  The rear duplex is just as misunderstood, if not
more so, than the front one is.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis