posted 02-06-2004 12:51 AM               

"doof"- A dead note
"Spoing" - Broken string
"zoozoozoo" - Unusually long fret buzz
"Ktaynkerplunk, Ktaynkerplunk" - Poor tremolo technique.......................!!

Sounds like Calvin and Hobbes.

How about:

"Wolf" - any noise you can’t find a better word for.

Sorry to seem like a stickler, but no one yet in the fretted instrument world, including Mr. High-and-Mighty Christopher Parkening, has used the term wolf in any meaningful way. I cited several examples of what people have said they actually meant, and they’re so disparate I think that was enough, but there are more. If you ever heard a wolf in a cello, as I have many times (even today in fact), you would never dream of calling a fret buzz or a ringing afterlength in an archtop or a bit of phase cancellation a wolf. No way.

English is a wonderful language, it has arguably many times more words and nuances than any other on earth. Why people would settle for so little when they’re trying to discuss something that’s driving them freaking nuts is beyond me.

posted 02-06-2004 04:29 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul Hostetter:

.....including Mr. High-and-Mighty Christopher Parkening, has used the term wolf in any meaningful way.

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Parkening has a direct link to THE Almighty,
so maybe that's where he got the term .

I think Segovia used the term "bad" to describe a guitar he didn't like, and then
give/sell it to a student.

Frank

posted 02-06-2004 09:38 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ucdcrush:

What is it called when you're playing on one string, and that sets another string vibrating (and making noise)?

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That's called sympathetic vibration. Anyone who calls it a wolf note will be systematically hunted down and their inards used to make instrument strings!

posted 02-06-2004 12:58 PM               

The above link describes a wolf tone.

Paul's probably busy pulling his hair out,
so I thought this might help .

posted 02-06-2004 01:28 PM               

Actually, the term 'wolf note' _can_ apply to plucked string instruments, since the mechanism that causes the wolf in the violin family also exists in guitars and can cause problems. The 'wolf' occurs when the impedance of the string too closely matches that of the body of the instrument at the point where the bridge sits. Essentialy the length of the string is undefined at this pitch, and so the pitch of the string is also undefined. The impedance of the top is lowest at a strong resonance that is active at that point. The _result_ of this is different in violin and guitar family instruments, simply because the driving mechanism is different.

On the violin, where you have a bow constantly putting in energy, the strng is kept in vibration, but the pitch changes. Once the string 'loses' it's frequency lock it is no longer driving the top exactly on resonance, so the impedance that the string 'sees' changes, firming up the bridge, defining the length of the string, which sounds at the troublesome pitch, and causing the whole cycle to start over.

On the guitar this type of wolf usually manifests itself as a 'buzz'. Since the top motion is essentially all in the vertical direction the string length is only undefined in that plane. The string 'thinks' it has two different lengths, depending on which way it is vibrating, and since it almost always has motion in both directions it sounds both pitches. This is a far more common thing than you might think, but usually it doesn't cause problems. When it does it can be a bear to fix.

The thing that most people call a 'wolf' on the guitar is also related to the violin one. In this case the impedance of the top is high enough to define the string length properly, but still close enough to the string impedance to cause a distinct lack of sustain, and a loud attack. Normally it happens at the 'main air' or 'man wood' resonance frequencies, at which the bridge is moving the most and which are the most effective sound radiators on the guitar. If you were putting in energy at the rate you do on the violin this _could_ be the wolf, as the top would rapidly build up enough motion to react back on the string and shift its frequency.

There's another 'wolf' on the guitar that is caused by the fact that the top and back are not locked together by a soundpost. If they have closely matched resonance frequencies, and the back has low enough damping so tat it takes it some time to build up to speed, it can actually set up a beat with the top, which will also sound like a fret buzz. Another doozy to find.