Strings riding up (was Tuning stability)

Fred Sturm fssturm@unm.edu
Fri, 09 Apr 2004 07:28:55 -0600


--On Thursday, April 8, 2004 9:45 PM -0400 Ed Sutton <ed440@mindspring.com> 
wrote:

> On the other hand, this thread is asking some "deep" questions about
> string terminations.  A few years ago Ron and I discussed the possibility
> that bridges might work better if the caps were "hollowed" in the center.

Might work better if the edges were hardened somehow. Otherwise, grooving 
might happen just that much faster. Of course, the Sohmer design described 
by Otto Keyes was along those lines, to a degree.
> I've not been motivated to do that much carving to test it. Fred's post
> reminded me of that, and set me to wondering if it could be accomplished
> by tapping, since we all agree that tapping can dent wood!  I will try it
> some time on a piano that's dead anyway.

	One possibility that has occurred to me, in the course of this thread, is 
to fill the grooves when doing the partial restring, etc. How and with 
what? I'm thinking epoxy, applied with a syringe, laid down pretty 
precisely in the groove. Prep the groove in advance by filing with one of 
those little rat tails they used to sell for centerpin bushings, to get rid 
of graphite and rough it up a bit. If the epoxy doesn't want to level 
itself very well, maybe apply some heat with heat gun.
	Worth a bit of experimentation on an old bass bridge hanging around the 
shop, and then trying on a couple unisons if that goes well. Thought I'd 
throw this out in case some other nut wants to experiment and share results.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

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