Help with splitting bass bridge

[Jim]

Hi Bill:

Unfortunately there were a lot of pianos made by a now defunct Co.
which utilized a softer maple for their bridges in addition to not
taking pains to maintain good grain direction.  These pianos would
show splitting in a brand new piano.  How do I know?

Epoxy was little help in those cases.  Recapping with cap at least
3/8" works better.  It's not that hard to do.  Use a translucent
or transparent mylar sheet about 2 or 3 inches wide to mark where
the pins should have been before they bent over. Rout off the bridge
surface to proper depth (who knows what it should have been?), reglue
the new cap, remark for bridge pins, bevel edges of bridge (these
cheap pianos seldom had notches on Bass bridge), re-attach Bass
strings, seat at hitch pins, chip tune twice, fine tune once.  Is it
worth it?  Probably not.

Let me correct myself.  Epoxy can work even on those pianos if the
bridge pin line is routed out about 1/4" wide, completely filled
with something like marine-tex epoxy, then resurfaced, redrilled,
etc. as above.

Jim Coleman, Sr.