Agraffes on Bridge

[Susan Kline]

At 08:48 AM 6/23/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>In the bridge agraffe section the pianos
>had a very clear and clean tone, with strong high harmonics.

Hi, Don

I had a different experience on a roughly 6 foot Sohmer. While
the tenor wasn't too bad, I found that above middle C the tone
had a decided vibrato in each individual string. By the time
I was in octave 6 it was a strong flutter, and I had the devil of
a time even telling what the pitch was. The top section, above
the bridge agraffes, was completely normal.

The piano was at 440, and I tuned it there. No broken strings,
and it didn't seem to have had any before I came.

I made a discovery -- on a very hard blow, the tone would clear
up. I assume that the hammer drove the wire harder into the
top of the agraffe hole, and provide a decent termination.
By tuning at ff level, I got the thing presentable, though it
still warbled at softer dynamic levels. I wonder if perhaps
for some reason to do with bridge crown the strings had lost
"up-bearing." Or perhaps, having broken so many strings on
earlier models, they decreased the angle needed to get over
the ridge behind the agraffe, and that led to a leaky
termination.

I could see why the idea of bridge agraffes didn't catch on,
if this piano was typical.

Susan Kline