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Curt Mangan Monel Strings in Prime Number Gauges
- Thread starter trothwell
- Start date
Anyway, the strings themselves probably sound fantastic through snake-coil pickups.
Shows what you know. You're contributing to the free advertising they are recieving by arguing your point. That's why marketing is a specialized trade.
Aside from the clear absurdity of this claim, those first four words should immediately raise a red flag. "It is believed" is a great way to say something while simultaneously weaseling out of any need to provide evidence. I could also say that "it is believed" that the earth is flat, or that vaccines will make your body magnetic, or that the moon landing was faked, and that's true - those things are believed, despite being utterly wrong.
Yes, but we all know that B flat is the real fundamental pitch of the universe:
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Also, they don't have a 6-string set, and should not have a 4-string set. The only set they should have is the 5-string set. One perceived relationship of all prime numbers except for 2 and 3 is that they all appear to be either one more or one less than a multiple of six. For example, in this set, 6x7=42, and the gauge is 43; 6x10=60, and the gauge is 59; 6x12=72, and the gauge is 73; 6=16 is 96, and the gauge is 97; 6x21=126 and the gauge is 127, and so forth. Therefore, the only set they should have is a 5-string set, since 5 is one less than 6. I'll just see myself quietly out the side door....
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Also, they don't have a 6-string set, and should not have a 4-string set. The only set they should have is the 5-string set. One perceived relationship of all prime numbers except for 2 and 3 is that they all appear to be either one more or one less than a multiple of six. For example, in this set, 6x7=42, and the gauge is 43; 6x10=60, and the gauge is 59; 6x12=72, and the gauge is 73; 6=16 is 96, and the gauge is 97; 6x21=126 and the gauge is 127, and so forth. Therefore, the only set they should have is a 5-string set, since 5 is one less than 6. I'll just see myself quietly out the side door....
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Frankly, whoever writes product descriptions for Nordstrand deserves a Pulitzer Prize, or at least a Pullet Surprise. I read those just for fun sometimes and they are a hoot.
Yes, but we all know that B flat is the real fundamental pitch of the universe:
Invalid Link Removed
Also, they don't have a 6-string set, and should not have a 4-string set. The only set they should have is the 5-string set. One perceived relationship of all prime numbers except for 2 and 3 is that they all appear to be either one more or one less than a multiple of six. For example, in this set, 6x7=42, and the gauge is 43; 6x10=60, and the gauge is 59; 6x12=72, and the gauge is 73; 6=16 is 96, and the gauge is 97; 6x21=126 and the gauge is 127, and so forth. Therefore, the only set they should have is a 5-string set, since 5 is one less than 6. I'll just see myself quietly out the side door....
Further, their prices for both sets are even numbers! They could reduce each price by just a few cents and have prime pricing as well.
- Feb 8, 2021
- 153
- 437
- Disclosures
- Endorser of EBS Amplification, Neotech Straps
Almost as good as the saxophone company that puts stones on the neck to change the instrument’s resonance….
Quite. I'm going to hold out for the Monel 401 upgrade. Primes > squares all day long.
And the trumpets, and now other instruments:
Cannonball Saxophones - Stone Series, Vintage Reborn, Sceptyr, Alcazar, Gerald Albright Signature Series
The interesting thing is that sometimes a wind instrument does have a node or antinode resonance in the wrong place which can make the horn stuffy or lose tone or affect tuning on a particular note. Adding mass or repositioning the bracing, tube diameter, or conical progression of that area can help. Renold Schilke spent his life researching this, and he made some of the best trumpets ever. In this case, it is not the stone, it is simply the added mass to control resonance and response of the horn. Reynolds put a little cap of metal in the same place, first for durability since the knuckle into the valve block is a place that gets damaged easily, and found out later it helped response by damping spurious vibrations. Others, for example, have made a business of tweaking the braces and slides on Bach trumpets to get better tone and response, with varying degrees of success. I personally have a tuba that had a lucky accident: I swapped bells for a different tone. The length of the replacement bell was shorter, so I had to have the main tuning slide extended to compensate. This had the effect of mitigating a well-known flat fifth partial characteristic that is common with this make and model of tuba. So don't put too much into the stone, but it is a novel marketing gimmick when a strip of lead golfer's tape in the right place will do the same thing.
Prime numbers can't be fractions - which string gauges are.
Now, let's say you just moved the decimal places over. Problem solved? Not really, because what's prime in inches isn't going to be prime in metric.
I’m pretty sure whoever writes for Nordstrand is in on their own joke. I certainly hope so, anyway!
Sure, 0.043 is not a prime number, but 43 is prime, and 43 of a quantity of something is a prime number of a quantity of something. In this case, 43 thousandths of an inch.
Moving things to metric, of course, totally ruins that (I guess there may be some metric conversions that happen to work out to a different prime number, but generally speaking). Which reduces the credibility of this whole mathemystical concept even more!
It seems pretty silly, but I'm not a mathematician, acoustician, or music theorist. I know nothing about physics.
I do know that the ad copy on the listing reads like pure salesmanship, but what really caught my attention is what they have to say about monel right away:
Why Monel? Monel is a "pricey" metal alloy that was specifically designed to resist tarnish, rust and corrosion in "sweaty, salty and steamy" environments.
That's just bad marketing to call something pricey. And to quote something but not have a reference to where that quote comes from is also a bad move.
I do know that the ad copy on the listing reads like pure salesmanship, but what really caught my attention is what they have to say about monel right away:
Why Monel? Monel is a "pricey" metal alloy that was specifically designed to resist tarnish, rust and corrosion in "sweaty, salty and steamy" environments.
That's just bad marketing to call something pricey. And to quote something but not have a reference to where that quote comes from is also a bad move.
Nice gimmick. At least balanced tension makes sense, or using true temperment frets, but once we are dealing with magic harmonics that somehow work better based on magic gauge (not accounting for a million other variables), I'm going to have to say this emperor is most likely naked.
How else do you justify charging $50 for a four-string set of roundwounds?
However, I am only aware of one other string set that uses monel - Rotosound 77 flatwounds. Those are cheaper than these, but I guess they don't have magic prime number gauges.
