[Bell Historians] olympics

[John Harrison]

> > According to Bill Hibbert, there is little point in tuning bells of
> > this size as most of the harmonics are too low to be heard. 

> This reads like the usual bell-makers' tuning fudges to me;-)

What Bill's website says is that with large bells, the partial an octave
below the nominal is normally so low that the ear doesn't lock onto it (as
the perceived sound) but instead tends to lock onto a set of higher,
harmonically related tones.  That seems quite plausible, given the complex
nature of the sound.  

And if the tones in question are harmonically related (unlike the five
normal partials, which aren't unless tuned to be) then they don't need
tuning.  After all, orthodox tuning practice only bothers with 5 partials,
and leaves all the others, on the grounds that they only have a minor
influence on the sound.

Regards

-- 
John Harrison
Website http://jaharrison.me.uk