Fourteens

[David Bryant]

Didn't know about Shoreditch. Surely if they were going to consider
wanting a light ten they should have had a flat 6th instead of a sharp
2nd. Wanting a light ten was the cited reason for Winchester. Why can't
these places just say they want a 14 - it's obvious to everyone that
that's the reason!

I have to say I agree with Dickon on the matter of fourteens. Fourteen
is a musically nasty number, being two octaves minus the top note, and
to me it sounds unnatural in the same way as ringing seven. Let's hope
the accoustics at Redcliffe stay as excellent as they are now, anyway.

I'm not really in favour of this practice of moving musically important
bells above the rest to enable augmentation to go ahead. The same
happened at Shrewsbury when they put the extra treble in - the treble of
12 is now above. It's vital to make sure that the trebles of a 12 are
clearly audible, and moving them above isn't likely to help. When the
extra treble was installed at York David Potter made a point of putting
it on the same level, even though this meant rearranging the front three
of 12 and replacing some of their gudgeons to suit their new position.
It worked - all bells are clearly audible.

David