[CAUT] More on Single String Beats

[Ken Zahringer]

Hey, all,

I have been following this thread with a fair amount of interest, so now I
think I¹ll be a little inflammatory :-)

There are obviously many factors that enter into the single string beat
phenomenon, but I want to talk about one: the quality and solidity of the
string/bridge connection.  It seems to me that discussing how to improve the
string/bridge pin/bridge connection, is rather like discussing how to use
grandpa¹s whittlin¹ knife to make action parts just like Renner¹s.  I wonder
if we haven¹t taken this technology as far as it can go, if we might not
need to be on another track entirely.

A few years ago I met an Australian pianist who told me about a piano he
played back home, a Stuart & Sons.  Wayne Stuart uses a device he calls a
³bridge agraffe².  It¹s a piece that sits directly on the bridge top, and
the string is deflected downward as it passes through, rather than sideways
as with pins.  There are no pins driven into the bridge.  See a picture
here: http://www.stuartandsons.com/sound.html

I talked to Ron Overs about this last summer at Rochester.  He seemed to
think it was a good idea.  He also told me it is not patented, and in fact
Sohmer used these devices many years ago.  I suppose it didn¹t catch on then
because other manufacturers saw it as ³their² idea, not ³ours².  With modern
manufacturing techniques, surely they would be less expensive than the
labor-intensive process of drilling, notching, and pinning a bridge, and
would seem to offer a better termination as well.  I have talked to a couple
of people who have played a Stuart, and they both were very impressed with
the clarity and sustain.

This looks like the kind of innovation we, as technicians and especially as
rebuilders, ought to be promoting.  Also it looks like a good opportunity
for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit.  Does anyone have any experience
with these agraffes?  Is there a downside to them that I don¹t know about,
other than inertia in ideas of how a piano is supposed to look?  They are
certainly a fascinating idea, to me, anyway.

Regards,
Ken Z.
-- 
Ken Zahringer, RPT
University of Missouri
School of Music

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