bars.

[A440A@aol.com]

Roger writes:
<<From the design point of view, it definitely looks like a retro fit, or
after thought, to save on the cost of making new plate patterns. Is the
long strut that weak?????? 

    I don't think so, I have a customer with an 1872 concert grand, and it 
has a strut as part of the plate design.  

 
>>My best guess is that it is just a safety margin feature, added because of
some failed plates early in history, and has now been shrouded in mythology.
I would not gamble.>>

   I have restrung both of these pianos in the last 20 years, and both had 
the strut quite compressed until the string tension was let off, and then 
they were much more easily moved out.  I believe that that strut is to resist 
any tendancy of the middle section from bending due to string loading.  The 
only piano I have tuned without one is very easily put out of tune by 
temperature changes.  
I'll see, 
Thank,s 
Ed