Chas. Fred Stein

[Joel Rappaport]

Ron & List,

If I picture correctly what Ron describes below, it is similar to some
experiments I have seen on grands to offset the effect of the bridge
rolling in the direction of the keyboard when the piano is brought up to
pitch, especially when first strung.  The amount of flare follows the
amount of bridge roll you would expect along the bridge - more in the
tenor and less in the top (capo area).

I remember some years ago visiting the Ibach factory in Germany with
Klaus Fenner when he was designing their pianos.  He had several
different prototype designs of this sort of bridge design.  The end
effect should be to stabilize the piano more quickly after stringing and
it was being developed in this case mainly to speed up the manufacturing
process (surprise, surprise!)

The holes could be nicely designed, but primarily to eliminate mass and
weight without compromising the strenght of the ....thing.

Maybe this explanation fits.

----Joel


Ron Torrella wrote:
>
> I received a call from a local tech this morning asking about a Stein
> piano.  It's a 6'1" Scale T and has serial number 1465 attached.
>
> The question is about the bridge on this instrument which has a protrusion
> on the keyboard side -- below the speaking lenth of the strings.  The
> protrusion was described as follows:
>
> It runs the length of the bridge, flaring out in the tenor area to about
> 8-9".  In the capo area, the protrusion is only about 3/4".  The part in
> question appears to extend only from the base of the bridge -- below the
> cap.  Below each unison, in front of the bridge, there is an oval cutout
> (a window) that is parallel to the strings.  The holes graduate wide/long
> to narrow/short from tenor to capo.
>
> What is this ... thing ... and what is it's purpose?
>
>                              Ron Torrella, RPT
>                         Assistant Piano Technician
>                           University of Michigan
>                               School of Music