Re: Tuned bodies, just intonation

[hippo@xxxxxxxxxx (Hugh Messenger)]

At  1:18 AM 10/18/94 -0400, Winslow Yerxa wrote:
>TUNED BODIES
>[...]
>If you substitute reed for tuning fork and comb (with reedplates
>and covers) for the dinner plate, it's pretty obvious that
>there's not much of a tuned resonance going on in a harmonica.
>After all, the comb is nothing but a slab of hard material of a
>predetermined size with slots cut into it to accomodate the
>reeds. I'm not even sure if they use differently-cut combs for
>different keys of harp. And given the complex shape, how could
>you tune it anyway? Everything described so far can easily be
>explained by forced resonance. The harps that vibrate more may
>simply have a better seal between the reedplate and the comb.

This may be it.  The guy who builds the combs and assembles the harps for
Norman has a collection of high precision engineering equipment, including
one of those super flat tables (which is where the harps get assembled).

Like I said, I don't know how or why they might work, David just tells me
they sound great which is good enough for me.  If it's because the combs
are very well engineered and assembled, that's fine by me.  If having a
body which will naturally resonate helps, so be it.

I'm also not convinced by your tuning fork / plate / forced resonance
analogy.  Certain plates resonate better than others.  I know this through
experiementation, having been leader of woodwind sections (I grew up as a
classical flute player) and substitute conductor for various orchestras -
at one point I experiemented with a bunch of tin plates, wood blocks, glock
plates, cymbals and miscallaneous lumps of stuff to amplify my tuning fork
so that the whole orchestra could hear, rather than rely on a tone deaf
oboe player.

As for how they tune them - they experimented with shaving metal from
various parts of the comb until they found exactly where does what.

Anyway, I'm getting one to play with, and I'll let y'all know how it goes.

   -- hugh