I rebuilt a 6' Bluthner from 1898 within the last few years. It had some peculiar design features. The plate had no cast member in front of the bass bridge for hitching the low tenor strings. Instead, the strings of the lowest 10-15 tenor unisons went through "windows" in the body of the bass bridge and hitched in front of the raised bass string hitch. The bass bridge was very insubstantial and had self-destructed into 5-6 pieces. This type of bridge with cracks is an ample source for buzzes. The top two sections of my project had no support for the rotating force on the pinblock. The block (the tuning pin part was one piece, solid beech) was collapsing at the front edge of the tuning pin field and had rotated down considerably. If your piano has a similar design, let me know and I may be able to suggest possible solutions to the problems. In any case, I would not let down tension on part of the piano only, and would not let down the tension at all without being prepared to deal with the pinblock. >I recently completed work on an 1885 Bluethner, which was actually pretty modern by comparison with what I would normally work on.< My Bluthner project was not the oldest piano I have worked on, but it did have the most "pre-modern" design. It had a glued-up frame with two bent-wood panels on the outer rim. I would be interested in your comments relating this sort of construction to that of forte pianos. Incidentally, Mr. Bluthner gave a very interesting class at the PTG convention in Dearborne last summer. His comment, when asked about Bluthners of this vintage was, "Let them die." Bob Hohf Wisconsin
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