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Topic: OT: Change in timbre (Read 3340 times) previous topic - next topic

OT: Change in timbre

Long ago Bill wrote:

Quote
As to the harp - the timbre certainly doesn't change very much. But I do notice that the sound is purer when plucked in the center - near the center node, where you normally make artificial harmonics (to get back to the original topic) - than it is when plucked near either the bridge or the soundboard. Plucking near the ends of the string produces a dulling of the sound, which I have always attributed to a greater excitation of the higher harmonics and a corresponding drop in intensity of the fundamental, though I could be wrong. This is true, anyway, of the Celtic harp.

At the time I wrote I didn't get a big change in the timbre.

I just bought a new celtic harp.
Beside now having to pass most of the time retuning it (both the frame and the gut strings are brand new!), I discovered it has a much more evident change in timbre if plucked P.D.L.T. (prés de la table) than my previous harp.
Even the "regular" timbre is quite different from the one I had before.

Not all instruments are made equal!

Re: OT: Change in timbre

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Flurmy –
Not all instruments are made equal!

That certainly is true. Even different harps from the same maker. They are, after all, largely a hand-made instrument. I have a very beautiful Dusty Strings harp that I seldom get a chance to play any more. I have a friend who bought the same make and model but found the sound was much duller than mine. After a few months she traded it in on a different Dusty Strings model, and it sounds better than mine. Maybe it's because I'm not practicing....but I think it is differences in the wood grain, especially in the soundboard but perhaps also in the post.

Bill

Re: OT: Change in timbre

Reply #2 –
Dusty Strings? You play it very rarely indeed! :-)

Re: OT: Change in timbre

Reply #3 –
Yeah, well....it was a Dusty Strings when I did play it a lot. (Used to be in a Celtic band.) Anyway....Dusty Strings is a harp and hammered dulcimer maker in Seattle. Their website is here. The instrument is gorgeous. Kinda outshone my playing.

Bill