Matching old bells in a ring

[Bill Hibbert <bill@h...>]

DJB:

> What's the view of list members on the practice
> of matching old bells in a ring?

I wrote a piece on this the other day on an internet group - was it 
this or another one?

There is more than one dimension to this. Issues that need to be 
covered are: nominal tuning (including stretch, temperament etc.); 
profile and weight (which acoustically comes down to a matter of the 
frequencies of the higher harmonics); tierce and quint tuning; and 
old-style versus true-harmonic.

My personal views on these are as follows:
* it is worth matching the temperament of the existing ring, not that 
many people will know, but it cannot do any harm
* profile and weight are quite important, both from a 'ringability' 
perspective and to ensure a good match to the brightness or otherwise 
of the sound of the existing bells
* tierce and quint tuning is for the purists (or the carilloneurs), 
mere mortals will not know the difference
* old-style versus true-harmonic; I think that putting better 
sounding bells in a peal does the whole peal good, and that putting 
in new bells with sharp hums and flat primes is usually a mistake.

One could make an exception to the last if replacing e.g. a cracked 
bell in the middle of an existing peal, but even so the practice 
should not be automatic.

The message I posted the other day talked specifically about 
augmenting older rings. If the existing ring has stretch, or trebles 
with a very different profile from the tenors, or trebles with very 
flat primes the compromises (especially on eight or above) often 
become too extreme for any bells added to the peal to please all 
listeners. Sometimes, the only good options are to leave well alone 
or, where permissible, to retune all the bells as part of the 
augmentation.

As an extreme example, the other day I tried a comparison for the six 
steel bells at Hale, comparing the 'special' Eijsbouts trebles with 
the sound that would have resulted if ordinary true-harmonic trebles 
had been used instead. Try www.hibberts.co.uk/collect2/hale.htm for a 
couple of recordings showing the difference. The nominal tuning of my 
replacement bells is the same as that of the Eijsbouts trebles, the 
brighter sound is because the replacement trebles have sharper higher 
partials.

These are all matters of taste; I don't expect all ringers to share 
my opinions! Diversity is important!

Bill H