[sussexpianos]

OK, went round to tune a piano today and the customer says that when he presses the sustain pedal and plays a single note, he hears a few harmonics which are not part of the played note's harmonic series.
Now, I understand that if you play a note, if the notes in its harmonic series were undamped, then they will ring, but surely if all notes were un-damped then there would be some other notes vibrating as well?
His piano is an Euterpe 121 upright 2 years old and tunes very well. His teachers, which apparently dosn't do this, is a 20 year old Kawai upright.
Am I wrong in thinking that surley all pianos must do this and others are slightly more noticable than others or is it that piano is different?
mmm, interesting eh?

[Barrie Heaton]

Any piano if the dampers are off and you play a note the prominent sound is the fundamental which excites all harmonics in the series. However, in that same note there will be discordant harmonics that will excite other harmonics and so on and so on. The better made piano hammers are hitting the best place to kill most discordant harmonics. So cheaper pianos will excite this bits you don't want

Also on some upright pinaos they don't kill the dead length from the vbar to the wrest pins and they can be very discordant

Barrie,
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Barrie Heaton
Web Master UK Piano Page

[Bill Kibby]

You have to start with the questions -

"Does he really mean harmonics?" and

"Does he know what harmonics are?" and

"Does he know that the harmonic series goes into some very discordant notes?"

People often use inappropriate words for things they don't know about, and we have to be thankful that the public needs our knowledge. Anything beyond the 6th harmonic is said to be discordant, but that is an over-simplification. The worst problem is trying to get inside someone's head and hear what they hear. I've known customers who heard something and couldn't understand why it wasn't strange to me. It's simply because I've heard a lot more pianos than they have. Another problem is the resonance of the air space inside the ear, mine's an F# in the treble, which screams out louder than the other notes.
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I do not buy, sell or value pianos, but I sometimes rescue pre-1890 pianos in the UK.

Have a look at the Datemarks page on my own website: http://www.pianogen.org

Piano History Centre

[vernon]

any single note has an infinite number of harmonics(partials) Fortunately we don't hear many of them past the 7th.
Different people hear different ones.
Unfortunately, if you cannot hear the customer's problem you will most likely be branded as incompetent! They will then consult a friend who is an " expert" ( unlike oneself)
Grandad said " you tune customers-not pianos."
Loch Ness Pianos
vernon