Actually, it was done to increase bearing in that area of the bridge. A great lack if it can cause that noisy "thwany" sound that we've all heard. I know of a fellow here in GR, deceased now, that used that method on very old uprights to get people through when they didn't want to trade in the pianos for sentimental value or what have you or when they didn't have a lot of money to spend on them but yet, wanted a better sound. He was very good at it. It really did make a tremendous difference if the right sized wire is used and placed in the right area of the bridge. No, I've never done it but, I've watched him do it many times over the years. Jer From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 11:03 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] What the.....? My guess is faulty reasoning to liven a set of dead bass strings. Probably made no difference but at that point taking them out was too much hassle. One can't assume that bazaar things done to pianos were for a good reason or even produced a better result. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of mick johnson Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 6:25 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] What the.....? I assumed downbearing too, so I pulled out the rocker gauge and was surprised to find good downbearing throughout the entire piano. Didn't check for crown though. It may have been an improvement decades ago, but those strings were dead. I played across the pinned and non-pinned areas with my eyes closed, listening very closely for any tonal improvement, but was consistent. Consistently poor, but consistent. As for measuring the harmonic envelope, maybe on the next visit, or if it ends up in my home shop. -- Mick Johnson, R.P.T. University of Nebraska, Kearney Kearney, NE 308-237-9264 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110118/a0f30543/attachment.htm>
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