Abstract:
The effect of varying the interior geometry of three different styles of reed shallots was studied. Three shallots---American, French, and German---were successively filled with approximately 0.065 g of wax for a total of eight fills. The wax was added to the shallots where the face opening was largest. The spectra for each of the shallots were found after each successive fill. A regulatable air source was adjusted to maintain a constant air pressure of 4 in. of water inside the boot. A reed length in the middle of each shallot's face opening was kept constant for each shallot to facilitate comparisons. The effect of filling the shallot with wax was that the frequency of vibration initially decreased. Further filling caused the frequency to increase slightly and then level off. In general, the addition of the wax tends to brighten the tone of the spectra by raising the amplitudes of the higher-order harmonics relative to the fundamental.