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Topic: Introducing the Sonometer |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 9 Sep 2012 8:52 am |
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The Sonometer used to be in every school physics laboratory, to demonstrate how string length and tension were related to pitch, and to prove the formulae.
When I was at school I used to play Sleepwalk on it with a tone bar, much to the annoyance of the Physics master.  I even suggested to him that he should put a pick-up on it so that the people at the back of the class could better hear the pitches that he was demonstrating, but that didn't go down very well. 
It could be said that this instrument is the direct ancestor of the steel guitar. |
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Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 9 Sep 2012 9:15 am
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Looks like a steel to me.
If you played with the H factor, it could be a pedal steel. I can visualize a number of individual weight plates all stacked on the wire, and then some method to lift a certain number of the plates up so that the effective load on the wire was lessened, thus reducing the tension and lowering the pitch. The converse, lowering or releasing more weight plates down onto the wire would increase the effective weight and thus the wire tension, and raise the pitch.
I have too much free time. |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 9 Sep 2012 9:57 am
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Ya gotta watch this guy ! The next thing I suspect he might have in the works is making himself one of these and then figuring out how to hook up a Multi-Kord changer to it.  
Maybe he would call it a Multi-Mono-Kord-Sonometer
That would be vintage on vintage. --If it can be done, Alan could figure it out and build it. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 9 Sep 2012 10:33 am
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| Is there such a thing as a "frictionless pulley? |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 10 Sep 2012 10:59 am
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No, all mechanisms have friction, but it can be reduced to the extent that it has little effect on the outcome of the experiments, just as the experiments rolling balls down an inclined plane don't take account of air resistance.
Many sonometers had more than one string. There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't have six of them, tune them to C6, and play all your Hawaiian favorites on it. 
And yes, I have built sonometers. 
Here's a picture of a Tromba Marina that I built about 20 yrs. ago. It's basically a six foot long sonometer, except that it has tuners instead of a pulley and weights. I may well build one with pulleys just to show what can be done.
Yes Danny, I have been toying with an acoustic MultiKord. When I build the MultiKord with regular pedals I may well incorporate a resonator and sound chamber into it, and end up with a pedal resonator like the Pedabro.
Last edited by Alan Brookes on 13 Sep 2012 6:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 10 Sep 2012 1:05 pm
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Had to look that one up Alan!
"A tromba marina, or marine trumpet (Fr. trompette marine; Ger. Marientrompete, Trompetengeige, Nonnengeige or Trumscheit, Pol. tubmaryna) is a triangular bowed string instrument used in medieval and Renaissance Europe that was highly popular in the 15th century in England and survived into the 18th century. The tromba marina consists of a body and neck in the shape of a truncated cone resting on a triangular base. It is usually four to seven feet long, and is a monochord (although some versions have sympathetically-vibrating strings). It is played without stopping the string, but playing natural harmonics by lightly touching the string with the thumb at nodal points. Its name comes from its trumpet like sound due to the unusual construction of the bridge, and the resemblance of its contour to the marine speaking-trumpet of the Middle Ages." |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 11 Sep 2012 10:30 am
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Yes, that's the one, John. Mine has one playing string and a few sympathetic strings. It makes a buzzing sound which to most modern ears would sound annoying. 
In fact, most modern listeners would find Mediaeval music very tinny and crude. The word "racket", for instance, refers to an early wind instrument, which to some ears sounded so bad that the expression, "it's a racket" has come to refer to any bad noise. 
Open-stringed instruments, such as the psaltery, were played at much lower tensions. If a string is tuned to low tension, when plucked it will be below pitch, reach concert pitch in a fraction of a second, then vibrate up and down around concert pitch for several seconds before dying out below concert pitch. To modern ears it would sound out-of-tune.
The bum-bass was just a pole with a bladder on it. A single string passed over the bladder, which squeezed into the bladder and looked like a bum (backside).  To change the pitch of the string while playing you squeezed the bladder. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 11 Sep 2012 10:41 am
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"It is played without stopping the string, but playing natural harmonics by lightly touching the string with the thumb at nodal points."
Alan,
It needs pedals then,,, to give you more harmonic notes. And you're just the man to do the job! 8^) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 12 Sep 2012 9:45 am
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Actually, that description is not exactly accurate for how it is played in reality. There is music written for the tromba marina which requires notes not found in the nodes. Of course, with several strings tuned to different pitch the number of notes available at the nodes increases.
But it's basically a background instrument, introducing the bass component to a small group. |
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Rainer Schmidt
From:
Eastwestfalia - Germany
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Posted 13 Sep 2012 2:41 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
The bum-bass was just a pole with a bladder on it. A single string passed over the bladder, which squeezed into the bladder and looked like a bum (backside). To change the pitch of the string while playing you squeezed the bladder. |
Hey, I like this explanation! I always thought the name was onomatopoetic. 
I'love to show you a picture of one of these in use, but somehow can't seem to get the paper print online.
So instead here's a West African musician going "boom" on a Bolon. No squeezing involved!
_________________
cardboard comrades etc: http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/rainair |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 13 Sep 2012 6:43 am
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A fascinating discussion, but it doesn't belong in this section. Moved to Music from Steel Without Pedals.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 13 Sep 2012 11:30 am
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| The sonometer needs a pedal. |
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