Strings riding up (was Tuning stability)

[Otto Keyes]

I have a 5'7" Sohmer grand with agraffes on the treble bridge & was tempted
to put a conventional cap on the bridge, but have not done so out of respect
for its historical value (or maybe just laziness).  It has quite a pleasant
sound in the lower volume ranges, but gets truly ugly above the forte level.
I suspect that anything less than recapping would not make a significant
improvement on this thing.  Brass termination = brassy sound.

Frequent voicing and judicious playing make it an nice instrument, but we
have a couple of college students boarding with us who seem to only be able
to play at the forte level or above, so this attribute has become
excruciatingly apparent.  However, they will be leaving soon, so historical
preservation will again take precedence.  Perhaps I can avoid making this
thing a real piano for a number of years yet.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard West" <rwest1@unl.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: Strings riding up (was Tuning stability)


> I have found this thread interesting because I, too, used to tap pins
> with religious, but gentle, fervor.  When I heard strings go "ping" into
> place, I thought I was really doing something.  And the tone improved.
>  I'm much more conservative now, almost to the point of becoming a
> member of the nontapper congregation.
>
> Since this seems to me to be an area that could be improved, I'm
> wondering what manufacturers have done to address soundboard bridge
> construction to eliminate some of the problems that have been outlined
> in such detail in this thread.  I have heard of metal bridge caps,
> agraffes on the soundboard bridges, etc.  I have even seen an old
> upright with what looks like small bearing bars (similar to the ones
> found on old SD-10's) on the soundboard bridges.  I imagine tradition
> dictates what the public will buy.  But if someone could invent a better
> bridge, why hasn't it caught on?
>
> Richard West,  University of Nebraska
>
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