Sound of hardened steel

[Guy McVer]

Now I wonder about the tension on guitar strings. When you tune a guitar you are adjusting the tension, which affects the rigidity. The higher the tension, the higher the pitch, because the string can't vibrate at lower frequencies the more tension you are putting on it. When you move your fingers up and down the fret you are also affecting the strings ability to vibrate. The farther up you go, the higher the pitch.

If you make something really hard, I imagine you are limiting the frequency that it can vibrate at. So it would have a similar effect. The harder it is, the higher the frequency, which gives you a higher pitch.

I'm not sure about any of this, but it sounds like it makes sense so I'm just throwing it out there.

brass Bell

Those are supposedly the best sounding bells, and yet brass is really soft...

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Bells are unique things a lot are bronze and are work hardened and tempered, but it does come down to the shape and thickness I think of how well it rings. Take a brass bar and it will just go thud, but a bell, well that's entirely different configuration of shape, thickness and hardness too. But still far softer than a premium knife blade steel heat treated at it's potential.

My Opinel #8 also gives a high pitch ring and I know that it isn't very hard steel, but I put it down to how thin the blade is and that it is hard somewhat.

I just thought it interesting
G2

 

[Cementite]

When you fret a guitar string (or for example cover the holes in a flute or horn), you're literally changing the wavelength, and since the speed of sound is constant, decreasing the wavelength increases frequency proportionally (i.e., halving the wavelength doubles the frequency, quartering the wavelength quadruples the frequency and so on)...

On the topic of bells, I once bought a (cheap) brass bell on ebay because I liked the sound of ships bells, which are also brass, but the cheap one sounded clangy and wasn't real resonant. Not sure whether it was because the cheap one was thinner, or because the better bells are more work-hardened than cheapos, or some other reason(s). I was surprised to read that scientists apparently aren't completely clear on how vibrations propagate in things like bells, cymbals, gongs, etc...it still seems to be somewhat of a mystery to them.