Blaine --
It's simple acoustics. When you add a second string you have doubled the power. When you double the power you increase the amplitude, or loudness, by 3 db. Adding a third string doesn't double the power as it's only half again the increase in power that came from adding the second string. Therefore, adding that third string brings up the potential power to a total increase of 4.5 db.
In the case of piano strings, however, this increase in power only happens when the unisons are perfect. The reason customers often say to you after you have completed a tuning that "It sounds louder than before" is because, now that the unisons are all clean, it actually is louder. By design. If the unisons are out even a little bit you get all kinds of phase cancellation that reduces that power. It's that minute phase cancellation, spread out unevenly across all the many partials in multiple strings in a unison that helps creates the complexity of tone. Some tuners actually deliberately tune with deliberate non-perfect unisons for the purpose of increasing that complexity of tone.
In truth, it is impossible to achieve an absolutely perfect unison with multiple strings, with all the partials of each string lining up perfectly in phase. The anatomy of the instrument just won't permit it. And even if you could it wouldn't last more than a few moments. But the closer you get, the louder it gets. And the leftover imperfections, deliberate or not, give you that all important character of tone.
A single stringed piano, barring false beating strings, would give you as close to a perfect stable, clean tone as you're going to get. But as you go up the scale the sound would get weaker, or less loud. Thin might be a good word. My question was about whether or not it would be possible to make modifications to multiple soundboards, across the three or four sections of the piano, to compensate for the loss of loudness in only using one string per note. A more efficient soundboard in the treble, making it louder, and a less efficient soundboard in the bass where it's already loud enough. Without multiple strings you will lose that beautiful complexity of tone, but I'm only talking about loudness here.
I admit to knowing very little about piano soundboard design. For all I know that may be something that designers have already taken into consideration. If yes, then, well, nevermind. If no, then something to think about. Or help me to understand why not. Acoustics are complex and sometimes even magical, and I'm just curious.
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-29-2021 00:32
From: Blaine Hebert
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
Geoff,
I disagree. I have tuned enough 2 string pianos, and for that matter enough strip muted pianos that demonstrated that two or three strings generate a more complex and rich tone (except for the low bass, which is complex enough with one). One string produces a thinner and more pure tone with is different enough to generate interest among artists. There are also no unisons to go out of tune, so the tuning is different and perhaps somewhat more stable.
But its just a point of view, for me, the artists playing and the audience listening.
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Blaine Hebert
Duarte CA
626-795-5170
Original Message:
Sent: 04-28-2021 18:11
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
The multiple strings per note are for the sole purpose of making notes louder as you go up the scale. Without the multiple strings those notes would sound quieter than the longer, thicker strings lower down the scale. Three strings, with optimized unison's, amounts to a 4.5 db gain in loudness over a single string. Has anyone ever built a piano with multiple soundboards. In other words, a separate soundboard for each section, each one optimized in thickness and crown for the loudness of that section and, possibly, eliminating the need for multiple strings per note.
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
Original Message:
Sent: 04-26-2021 17:45
From: Jim Ialeggio
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
WOW!...you are singing my song!...the notion of power in pianos only applies to 2000 seat concert halls, and the 3-1/2 pianists that can actually fill those halls...and even then, with an open mind, an audience, and pianist could simply lean in a little and hear some nuance. Although, in back to the future style, we have already been this way, evolutionarily speaking, although without doing it with one string. Forte pianos were within the realm this piano is experimenting with, I would say. Re power vs subtlety, ie tonal envelopes pre- 20th century and certainly pre- Steinway dominance.
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
Original Message:
Sent: 04-26-2021 15:48
From: Steven Rosenthal
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
Moving "power" down the list of priorities changes the game so much. Reducing inharmonicity, all of the issues surrounding unisons, the need for so much mass both in the piano and the action eliminates, I think, a lot of what pianists have to work around to get to musicality. An evolutionary path not taken in a sense. But now, with recording and amplification, perhaps a path that will be fully explored again.
(this type of instrument would have a much lower carbon footprint as well)
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Steven Rosenthal
Honolulu HI
808-521-7129
Original Message:
Sent: 04-26-2021 12:06
From: Kent Swafford
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
We actually did this in our shop to a Boston UP118 we junked for parts. The real Una Corda is lightly constructed due to the low tension, with thin soundboard, and very, very thin and light hammers.
Our Boston still gives just a hint of the sound...
Original Message:
Sent: 4/26/2021 11:55:00 AM
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: RE: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
What would be the result of stripping down a regular piano to just one string per note?
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
Original Message:
Sent: 04-26-2021 06:22
From: Rick Butler
Subject: New design; a piano with only one string per key. Amazing!
I'm just now learning about this new piano. Take a look and let us know what do you think.
The first video gives you a little background about how this piano came to be.
The second video highlights its amazing potential.
https://youtu.be/gfHK7_lSY-0
https://youtu.be/nG6lqd_mYvY
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Rick Butler
Bowie MD
240 396 7480
RickRickRickRickRick
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