[Bell Historians] SG/WI - was Tuning forks.

[Bickerton, Roderic K (SELEX) (UK)]

How much sound do we want from bells?
Our Victorian forbears were after the maximum but today more often than not loss of a few dB (probably only 1.5 to 3) would actually be an advantage.
What ever else is said about clapper design, the less mass that rests on the bell the less it damps the resonance.
How ether making the clapper smaller without changing the material would result in a small hard ball hitting the bell to sharply and producing a thin harsh tone, just try tapping a bell on the kiss mark with a hammer to appreciate the effect, then do the same with a similar weight of wood mallet (the shaft tang, because the block is to big to strike the kiss mark)
Should we be looking at lighter clappering and if necessary reducing the sound loss between the bells and ringing room a little? It would also get over the compromise necessary to get enough out of the trebles of a 12 (or more) to be heard, at the expense of there tone.
Rod.






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