Lyre Braces

[Avery Todd]

List,

I know it's a little late now but thought some of you might still
be interested. Below are comments I just received since forwarding
the lyre brace comments/questions to a rebuilder friend (sent with
his permission). I thought maybe Michelle particularly, might be
interested in his comments.

Avery

>  As far as the comments from Michelle L Stranges on the current Baldwin
>system, if it is the same system that we experienced for the last four
>summers at Tanglewood, all I can say is "no, no, No NO" IMHO.  Those little
>T-screws go into a brass sleeve that is knurled and inserted into a hole
>drilled into the top of the wooden support stick.  Problem is, the sleeve
>goes into end grain and even though knurled, has a tendency to become loose
>so that not only is the stick no longer adjustable, you can't shorten it
>enough to remove it.  So the whole lyre now has to come off to repair the
>exquisitely engineered feature.  The factory 'solution' is to drop CA glue
>around the sleeve to 'fix' it in the wood.  We tried that at Tanglewood and
>the result was that the sleeve then twirled around in the CA glue instead of
>the wood.  We had to (with great trouble) remove the sleeve and glue veneer
>into the hole to provide some flat grain, then reinsert the sleeve.  That
>was the only thing that worked.  This was probably the one most common
>complaint we had to trouble shoot, even more than tuning calls.
>Ted Sambell's and Denis Brassard's invention sounds so much better.  And I
>have seen the threaded brass cup on Bösendorfer grands, too.  It's a nice,
>simple and _workable_ solution.


>  > From: "David M. Porritt" <dm.porritt@verizon.net>
>>  To: <caut@ptg.org>
>>  Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 3:45 PM
>>  Subject: Re: how 'bout it??
>>
>>
>>  > I haven't done it to any "other" pianos but I have retrofitted a
>>  > couple of old Baldwin's with it. I like the idea, though I have to
>>  > say that pianos that are moved about and run over thresholds will
>>  > break the lyre even easier with those braces!
>>  >
>>  > dave
>>  >
>>  > *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>>  >
>>  > On 4/2/02 at 4:47 PM Michelle L Stranges wrote:
>>  >
>>  > >Hello folks!!
>>  > >
>>  > >Has anyone ever tried to put some sort of "turnbuckle" in Steinway
>>  > >(or any other  grands') lyre braces to take up the space that causes
>>  > >knocking/rocking problems??
>>  > >
>>  > >I like the newer Baldwin grand idea for helping this.
>>  > >
>>  > >(The "T" screw at the top that you twist into a space cut out in
>>  > >the underside of the keybed to make fit tight.)
>>  > >
>>  > >Anyone try doing this Baldwin idea on other pianos???
>>  > >
>>  > >:) michelle
>>  > >stranges@oswego.edu
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > _____________________________
>>  > David M. Porritt
>>  > dporritt@mail.smu.edu
>>  > Meadows School of the Arts
>>  > Southern Methodist University
>>  > Dallas, TX 75275
>>