admired the highly refined craftsmanship of Wayne Stuart observed in the materials, design and appearance of his pianos, though it was noticeable that the technicians who didn’t agree that the string vibration could be more vertical also expressed a personal dislike for the tonal qualities of the Stuart sound. Each technician agreed that if we could visualize the vibrations of both the Stuart and the modern piano strings, then that would help inform their understanding of the nature of the Stuart string vibrations.

Filming the String Vibrations

I then proceeded to film the string vibrations using the Stuart & Sons (M19 STU) and Steinway (STE) pianos (STE), described in chapter one. The bass piano string of the note C2 65.406 Hz was chosen to be the compared string vibration, because at 65 Hz, the vibrations are almost visible by the naked eye, and the timbre of the two pianos seemed closely matched in that register. A white mark was placed at an identical position on both strings and at a good visible angle for the video camera. A strobe light was deployed at a frequency that visually slowed the activity of the string vibration into a clearly visible contour, with the room darkened. This first attempt of filming the string vibrations became a useful exercise for realizing several additional conditions needed to be set up for the comparison to be clearly demonstrated.

1. the hammer needed to strike each piano string with exactly the same force
2. the string needed to be visually filmed out of the piano, because the visual angle inside the piano was not clear enough for the camera to capture details of the string vibration,
3. the camera needed to have the capability of slowing down the footage.

Fortunately, a team of specialists combined to produce the needed equipment:-

1. Electronic engineer Peter Phillips constructed an electronic striker that could be precisely calibrated to various velocity key strikes.