Posted by John Swensen on August 17, 2001 at 13:37:10:
In Reply to: Re: Vibration, damping, and weight posted by Gerald J. on August 17, 2001 at 13:21:27:
The relationship between the bell's hardness and the tone is not always simple; for example, Renold Schilke described an experiment where he made two trumpet bells, identical in shape. One bell was lead and only thudded when tapped; the other was hardened steel, which rung for a long time when tapped. The bells were alternately attached to the same trumpet body, using the standard tuneable bell mechanism.
Surprisingly, the steel bell produced a very dull sounding trumpet, while the lead bell sounded brittle-bright. Schilke thought the reason was that the vibration of the steel bell was interfering with the air column vibrations, "cancelling out" the high frequencies.