Sticky-Pad Piano

The pad's face is bonded to the reed: lifting the key drags the reed up until the bond's edge peels away (the band under the pad shrinks), then the reed rings. Heights exaggerated; traces below: pad force and tip height.

The reed's spring line, the static tack F₀, and the release points for key speeds from 3 to 40 cm/s: faster keys peel the bond at a higher force. Ringed: this note.

The reed's overtones are not harmonic (about 8–12 × f₁ with the solder); the harmonics in between come from the pickup's nonlinearity.

The reed's inharmonic overtone fades before its fundamental. The harmonic lines in between are the pickup's, made from the fundamental, so they fade with it.