Room acoustics

Hi all
Has anybody had any experience with wolf tones due to acoustics of a room or building. I seem to have trouble with every uke I have bought having a wolf note around f-g.It got me thinking I can't have that much bad luck.When I played my uke I have now in the shop it sounded really sweet. When I got home it sounds plucky around the g. Today I moved around the house just plucking the g and found in certain places mainly corners of rooms it disappeared . Has anybody had this experience with this is there a remedy apart from sitting in a corner or moving house.
Thanks Phil.

It is my experience that if an instrument has a wolf note, it is there no matter where the instrument is played or by who. It can be corrected but it takes time to find. As for a room contributing to a wolf note, I don't see that as a possibility. A room could be quite or full of echoes and make an instrument sound different, but wolf notes, I don't see how that is possible. I would suggest the what you are hearing is due to your hearing, a physical condition. Have others heard this wolf note along side you in the same room at the same time you hear it? You might try this. Good luck.

philrab66 said:

Hi all
Has anybody had any experience with wolf tones due to acoustics of a room or building. I seem to have trouble with every uke I have bought having a wolf note around f-g.It got me thinking I can't have that much bad luck.When I played my uke I have now in the shop it sounded really sweet. When I got home it sounds plucky around the g. Today I moved around the house just plucking the g and found in certain places mainly corners of rooms it disappeared . Has anybody had this experience with this is there a remedy apart from sitting in a corner or moving house.
Thanks Phil.

Click to expand...

My group of about 30-40 rehearses twice a week in two rooms at a Veterans Center. One is a large high ceiling rectangular multi-purpose room, the leader and her amp facing us at the narrow end of the room, we in rows filling the length of the room. Three solid walls and one long all glass wall. The sound is very good and resonant.

The other room is very odd shaped, called the rotunda room with high ceiling and a long curved wall on one side, flat angled short walls coming off the ends of the curve going to a long wall of glass. The leader used to stand at the glass wall facing us, we in wide straight rows going back to the curved wall. The sound was not good, poor harmonics, echoed, my bass uke would be very boomy.

After complaining about the sound to each other for a long time, I thought to try a different configuration, so I moved the leader to the short flat wall and the rows of our chairs back from there the length of the room. It made a big difference, no more echo or boomy sound.

---

8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos

BlackBearUkes said:

It is my experience that if an instrument has a wolf note, it is there no matter where the instrument is played or by who. It can be corrected but it takes time to find. As for a room contributing to a wolf note, I don't see that as a possibility. A room could be quite or full of echoes and make an instrument sound different, but wolf notes, I don't see how that is possible. I would suggest the what you are hearing is due to your hearing, a physical condition. Have others heard this wolf note along side you in the same room at the same time you hear it? You might this. Good luck.

Click to expand...

X2. Wolf notes in my experience are stubborn. I work around them, detuning (or using a capo) to move the note to less problematic position on the fretboard, or rearranging a tune to use a different chord voicing. I've read theories about correcting them. Who has attempted or succeeded in doing so?

philrab66 said:

Hi all
Has anybody had any experience with wolf tones due to acoustics of a room or building. I seem to have trouble with every uke I have bought having a wolf note around f-g.It got me thinking I can't have that much bad luck.When I played my uke I have now in the shop it sounded really sweet. When I got home it sounds plucky around the g. Today I moved around the house just plucking the g and found in certain places mainly corners of rooms it disappeared . Has anybody had this experience with this is there a remedy apart from sitting in a corner or moving house.
Thanks Phil.

Click to expand...

Like an ukulele body, a room is a box sound waves vibrate in. Pressure can build up at certain frequencies in certain places. Often in the middle.

I'm not sure what is meant by a wolf tone, but in my experience the acoustic characteristics of the location within which you play, can have a huge effect upon the sound of an instrument.

That statement sounds stupidly obvious, but it really is one of the major factors influencing the way an instrument sounds to the player, and to others in the vicinity. Even just turning and facing in a different direction can have a noticeable effect.

Sorry - that hasn't contributed anything worthwhile to the discussion, has it?

I'll go and sit in the corner.

John Colter.

ukantor said:

I'm not sure what is meant by a wolf tone, but in my experience the acoustic characteristics of the location within which you play, can have a huge effect upon the sound of an instrument.

That statement sounds stupidly obvious, but it really is one of the major factors influencing the way an instrument sounds to the player, and to others in the vicinity. Even just turning and facing in a different direction can have a noticeable effect.

Sorry - that hasn't contributed anything worthwhile to the discussion, has it?

I'll go and sit in the corner.

John Colter.

Click to expand...

I actually think it’s a great point. Especially as it relates to a quieter instrument like a uke. The voice of a uke gets quickly lost compared to say a guitar. All those years playing guitar I didn’t have to think about it ..

"the location within which you play, can have a huge effect upon the sound of an instrument."

Pressure builds in the middle. And playing "to the instrument" is something seasoned players do innately.