bridge caps - or not

[Steve Brady]

The only renotching I've done on "capless" bridges has been bass bridges
which were not vertically laminated but solid. As you mention, there are
problems associated with building the long bridge from unlaminated stock,
namely, the risk of the bridge splitting and cracking. It's not all that
unusual to see a 19th century piano (with a solid bridge) with a crack going
completely through the bridge.

As I understand it, Baldwin was only able to achieve an uncapped,
vertically
laminated bridge by creating special high-speed tooling to do the
notching. This leads me to believe that it would be difficult to do much
renotching on such a bridge using a chisel, although I haven't tried it.

On Wed, 28 Dec 1994 CRANE@TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU wrote:

> Has anyone done much renotching of 'capless' bridges during repinning?
> I have not yet had the opportunity to do this but I suspect that it
> might be something of a challenge (to put it lightly).
>
> Also, I wonder if there is a greater or lesser tendancy for strings to
> sink down into the top of a capless bridge necessitating renotching in
> the first place.  I am, of course, assuming the capless bridge is built
> of verticle laminations as opposed to some other arrangement.  It is my
> understanding that, as capless bridges go, this is the arrangement of
> choice considering some rather serious drawbacks inherent in the other
> possible designs.  Thoughts, anyone?
>
> Alan Crane, RPT
> Wichita State University
> crane@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
>

Steve Brady, RPT        "The most expert and rapid tuners are...
University of Washington       possessed of a highly excitable,
sbrady@u.washington.edu        nervous, and emotional temperament,
                         verging on the border of insanity at times."
                              -Daniel Spillane, The Tuner's Guide