Hello Alden, > If the Hungarian is resting on the soundboard, why does pushing the wedge in > farther makes the dog more sensitive?
No doubt you observed this behaviour! I suppose, what you observed was an effect of tension change, as described down the text. There are several factors that influence the working of the system, * first: The angle: The angles of the string against the sound board deflect a part of the string tension to acctually press the bridge against the sound board. if the string is paralell to the sond board the bridge is just kept in place and its moves are only limited by the the stretchability and pliantness of the string. The angles are determined by the geometry of the design (including the height of the buzzing bridge) and for the buzzing purposes by the buzzing devices. In case of the tirant system the tirant lifts the string up: The design usually allows also negative angles (that lift the bridge), but the maximum angle downwards is limited by the position of the notches and cannot increased by the buzzing device. In case of the wedge system both the the maximum and minimum angle can be adjusted freely by the device, negative angles are also possible. Movements of the wedge change the deflection (and therefore pressure). As the angle gets steeper when the wedge moves towards the bridge or is pushed steeper into the bracket the buzzing bridge gets pressed down more. * second: The wedge system also allows to adjust the distance between bridge and wedge. As the string is stretchable and pliant this lenght also influences the functioning of the buzzing system . Readjusting the angle and the distance might also cause * changes in the tension changes in tension occuring during the adjustment process are only a short for changing the actuall length of the string between buzzing bridge and right notch: This is because the tension is a property of the pitch (as the string properties and the sounding string lenght remain unchanged). how the wedge influences the tension/lenght of the string depends on the geometry of the system. Practically its important to see if the notch where the string is bent around the edge of the soundboard is shimmed with an extra wooden block (many but not all "wedge" buzzing systems have got this block): The buzzing system forms a triangle made from the direct line between bridge and notch (call it C, its usually a constant), the parts of the string between bridge and wedge (A) and between wedge and notch (B) form the other two sides. The wedge gives the hight (H) over C. If this height H is constant A plus B is shortest if A equals B thus the tension/lenght is at minimum there. Now the influence by the block: if the bracket runs exactly paralell to the line between bridge and notch, the hight H is constant for all positions (as long as you only move the wedge to the sides). If the line between bridge and notch has got an angle to the bracket, the part of the wedge that counts for H changes when moving the wedge to the sides. You see, depending on the geometry (aka if there is a block) its possible that the tension/lenght gets lesser when you move the wedge sidewise towards the bridge because A+B become equal and therefore get shorter. So, there are situations where you move a wedge towards the bridge and push it in and still get lesser tension than before! Finally one has to readjust the tension at the end of the buzzing device adjustment aka retune the string (tension changes are now converted into - not sounding - string lenght changes within the device). kind regards, Simon -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
