And the winner is . . .

[DaveBj]

I just finished an intonation test on the Dolce, using my three mouthpieces (DW 4ABL, the stock piece that came with the Dolce, and the combination of a Doug Elliott N104 rim and a TT cup), coupled with a large LeFreque plate on the top bow, which is supposed to influence intonation. Six combinations altogether. I measured the pitch on every note from the low Bb to the high Bb, including alternate fingerings. I put everything in a spreadsheet, printed it out, and, and marked out the cells where the pitch was more than five cents off. The column with the greatest number of clean cells won -- the DW, without the LeFreque plate.

There are still some bad notes. The high open Bb is 15 cents sharp, but 1st valve is only 5 sharp. Lot B is 20 cents flat, but then that's common to compensating horns. Low Bb is 20 cents sharp. There are some other notes that are 5 cents one way or the other, but that can be fixed, with a little lipping. Not bad, all told.

Obviously, other people's mileage may vary, intonation being a combination of several different factors, including the input from the individual player. But apparently this is what will work for me.

[Davidus1]

I just finished an intonation test on the Dolce, using my three mouthpieces (DW 4ABL, the stock piece that came with the Dolce, and the combination of a Doug Elliott N104 rim and a TT cup), coupled with a large LeFreque plate on the top bow, which is supposed to influence intonation. Six combinations altogether. I measured the pitch on every note from the low Bb to the high Bb, including alternate fingerings. I put everything in a spreadsheet, printed it out, and, and marked out the cells where the pitch was more than five cents off. The column with the greatest number of clean cells won -- the DW, without the LeFreque plate.

There are still some bad notes. The high open Bb is 15 cents sharp, but 1st valve is only 5 sharp. Lot B is 20 cents flat, but then that's common to compensating horns. Low Bb is 20 cents sharp. There are some other notes that are 5 cents one way or the other, but that can be fixed, with a little lipping. Not bad, all told.

Obviously, other people's mileage may vary, intonation being a combination of several different factors, including the input from the individual player. But apparently this is what will work for me.

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[davewerden]

The column with the greatest number of clean cells won -- the DW, without the LeFreque plate.

Thanks for the detailed report! It was interesting to me that you had test cases for the LeFreque plate as well, and that it made enough difference to affect the outcome...apparently in a negative way. Can you summarize the intonation differences noted with and without the plate? Were the with/without LeFreque differences similar among the 3 different mouthpieces as well?

[DaveBj]

At David's request, here is the spreadsheet. It starts at high Bb and goes down from there.

Note	DW		Elliott		Stock
	With	Without	With	Without	With	Without
Bb 0	"+20	"+15	"+5	OK	"+15	"+25
Bb 1	Ok	"+5	"-10	"-5	"+20	OK
Bb 23	"-20	"-10	X	X	"-15	OK
A 2	OK	OK	"-20	"-15	"-8	OK
A 12	"+5	"+10	-25	"-10	OK	"-5
Ab 1	"-30	"-5	"-25	"-15	"-5	"-22
Ab 23	"-15	OK	"-20	"-10		"+7
G 12	"-15	OK	"-15	"+15	"+7	"-5
G 3	"-35	"-10	"-30	"-20	"-7	"-12
Gb	"-15	OK	"-15	"-10	"-10	"+7
F 0	"+10	"+10	OK	OK	"+7	"+20
F 4	OK	OK	"-10	"-10	"-7	OK
E 2	"-5	OK	"-5	"-15	OK	"+10
E 24	X	"-7				"-15
Eb	"-5	"+5	"-5	"-10	"+7	"+5
D 0	"+10	"+5	"+10	OK		"+17
D 12	OK	OK	OK	OK		"+7
D 3	"-10	OK	"-5	"-5		"+5
Db 2	"+5	OK	OK	"-15	"+10	"+15
Db 23	"+5	"+15		"+5		"+15
C 1	"-20	"-10	"-30	"-15	OK	"-20
C 4	"-25	"-5	"-30	"-15		"-10
B 12	"-30	"-10	"-30	"-30	"-5	"-30
B 3	"-45	"-25	"-40	"-30		"-20
Bb	20mm	23mm	21mm	0mm	3CM	23mm
A	"-5	"-15	"-10	"-5	"-5	"-5
Ab	12mm	0mm	12mm	6mm	OK	17mm
G 12	OK	"+5	"+10	OK	"+5	OK
G 3	16mm	0mm	15mm	OK	6mm	0mm OK
Gb	OK	"+10	"+5	OK	OK	"+10
F 0	20mm	0mm	"+20	"+20		"+20
F 4	22mm	5mm	20mm	OK	15mm	"+5
E	OK	OK	"+5	OK	OK	OK
Eb	OK	OK	OK	"-5	OK	"-5
D 12	"+15	"+5	OK	"-5	"+5	OK
D 3	OK	OK	"-5	OK	OK	"+5
Db	"+5	"+5	"+15	"+15	"+20	"+20
C	OK	OK	15mm	10mm	17mm	2cm
B	"-20	"-20	"-20	"-15	"-15	"-20
Bb	"+30	"+20	"+15	"+10	"+20	OK

[davewerden]

Thanks, David. That is very interesting. I was expecting mostly 5 cents difference for with/without LaFreque, which one might suspect is margin-of-error territory. But the swings are wider in many cases.

[DaveBj]

I played with all three plates on my "Schiller" for about six months, and then took them off, and couldn't tell any difference. I didn't do this kind of analysis on it, tho.

I'm still going to do a check on intonation up and down the scale from time to time.

[RickF]

I just use one LeFreque plate across the mpc to receiver to add some mass and help solidify that connection. My wife says she can here a bit more volume with the plate attached. I suspect those with an AGR on their lead pipe that wouldn’t work and probably not needed since there’s more mass there already.