Had an Idea tonite...3 cups that when they are stricken with the wand one at a time produce 3 different notes, man with two wands acting as drumsticks one could have quite the unique kinda routine...reminds me of the heavy metal days...

What are your cups made of???

ringa ding dong!

johnny

That kind of reminds me of Michael Ammar's routine where he strikes the first two cups on the side then the third on the top, producing a different sound.

From what I've found, the tops sound the same...the secret is getting all 3 cups to sound diffrent when hit on the sides.

johnny

Really?

I have the Stainless PF cups and they sound different when hit on the shoulders than on the rim of the saddle.

I am hitting them with a brass wand.

To understand why cups have different pitches, you need to understand acoustics.

Without going into a first year course in physics, I'll 'splain some of this.

If the modulus of elasticity of two objects of the same dimensions and mass is the same, the pitch will be the same. If the mass is different, the one with the greater mass will have a lower pitch. If the modulus of elasticity is different, the one that has the most elasticity will vibrate at the lower pitch.

To make a cup weigh less, file a little metal off the rim of the cup. To increase its elasticity, file a little off the inside of the cup from the top to the bottom.

Before any of you jump in on this, make sure you have actually tuned an instrument that uses a vibrating block of metal, not just a guitar or something like that.

I have, at various points in my life, tuned pianos, organs, drums, banjos, banjo heads, accordions and harmonicas.

Because it requires great skill and experience to tune an object like a cup, I would strongly recommend against "trying this at home."

I will not be responsible for any damage you do to any of your cups when trying this. You can really mess them up badly if you don't know what you are doing.

In other words, you are better trying to work with them as is than trying to modify them.

Bill,

Could you get a different sound on a single cup if each end of the wand that struck the cup was made of a different material? Such as, if one tip was aluminum and one was brass? Or if the body of one wand was wood and the body of another wand was a solid metal?

In other words, is the sound that a cup makes totally (only) dependent upon the cup itself and not on the object that comes in contact with it?

Mike

The only difference would be in the attack of the note, not in the note, itself. The note depends on the cup.

However, if you could find a nodal point on the cup, you could hold it at that point and tap it, then the pitch would be different.

I seem to remember Johnny Brown tapping out a little tune on his cups...

Ronnie

I can play the opening 2 bars of "3 Blind Mice" on my Phoenix Cups!

I guess I'm lucky. I'm all set for Michael Ammar's gag "They're all exactly the same(klink, klink, klunk)... especially this one(klunk)"

My Gary Animal "Love" cups have one that's about a half note lower than the other two.

Well gang, I hate to tell you, but the gag originated with the late Bob Read, and in his hands, and with his line, it is a jewel. He showed it to me in London and gave me the ok to use it (but I have not).

Guess I'm lucky. I'm all set for Michael Ammar's gag "They're all exactly the same(klink, klink, klunk)... especially this one(klunk)"

My Gary Animal "Love" cups have one that's about a half note lower than the other two.



You just hit the sides on the first two cups and the top on the third.

Or you could use bells.
And the clappers fell out (the balls)

or have I tipped too much with this?

I know, but that's the cool part about these. I don't have to. One of them is naturally "out of tune."

So is one of mine Dave!

johnny

That's not uncommon on cups. Take all three of your cups and weigh them. The one with the lowest pitch will probably be the heaviest cup.

If all three weigh exactly the same, then the one that has the softest metal will be the lowest pitch cup.

So, at least I learned a cool gag to use from Dave VanVraken ala the Mike Ammar or whatever commment...cool beans!

I would still like three cups with different pitches (sp?) I could really jam out some beats my brothers & sisters and that would be radical man!

Anyways,even though I have only two notes w/my penguin cups...I still have the tops of the cups and other objects if need be to create different sounds, at least this is cool enough to warrant some interest in this topic.

johnny

Put different items inside the cups and see if the sounds change.

I'd have to check tonight, But I think some of the Gags in Michael Ammars routine came from Bob Read's Penultimate Cups and Balls routine.

I never heard of Ammars not giving credit to the proper source for any thing he uses.