Originally Posted by
Kontact
The sound the a piano string or a spoke makes is based on the length and tension of the exposed part of the string or spoke, not what is down on the other side of the nipple or fret. That's 101 - the violin doesn't know how much string is wrapped around the tuning peg.
I'll give you props for trying. We'll make a musician out of you yet! Next look up guitar harmonics. I'll give you a hint. The crossed spoke doesn't work out exactly as fretting a note. But even if it did, the crossing location is random at best in terms of accurate pitch which further makes tensioning via pitch less accurate. The whole spoke does contribute to the pitch it makes when plucked.
And the location of the flange, spoke crossings and rim are all very concentric, so the distance, tension and tone of the spokes at similar tensions are very close. (The tone you're looking for is produced between the rim and the touching spoke cross.)
Same length spokes are also "very close to the same length" but when we're talking pitch with these scale lengths and tensions, "very concentric" just isn't accurate enough for fine tuning tension. I would rather get the tensions actually close with a tensionmeter rather than guesswork close by ear.
Otherwise, you couldn't true a wheel until it is hard to see it spinning.
What?
However, you aren't going to tune all the spokes to exactly C. As I stated, using tone - which requires no music training - is a more accurate method to find variations in spoke tension than your typical tensiometer. And that's because tensiometers are more difficult to detect small differences in tension because they are relatively crude devices with arbitrary placement along the spoke. If you were using embedded digital strain gauges, that would be better than tone, but we don't use those.
The placement has some effect sure, but if you maintain the same placement every time, you'll get repeatable results.
Tone does require music training. If you're tone deaf you need more music training. Relative pitch needs to be learned just as much as perfect pitch does.
You also seem to be unaware that using tone is a common practice - not something I've invented. So you are, once again, opening your pie hole about something you know nothing about and objecting to things you don't understand - like what part of a musical instrument makes the tone. Plucking or tapping the spokes is a quick, simple method for identifying large tension variations between pairs of spokes and evening them out (that might be missed using a crude tensiometer), which leads to more stability in the wheel build, and guards against damage from too high or too low individual spoke tensions.
Large tension variations? Fine adjustment? Do these two actually go together. I also know tone is a tried and true method. I use it. But it's a ballpark method whereas fine tuning is done with a tensionmeter.
But you did good trying to build a strawman to distract from the weakness of your other arguments. I do admire your inventiveness though. Once one of your arguments is shot down, you bounce back with a new (albeit often false) concept or term. It's quite impressive really.