Bridge repair

[Richard Moody]

I let down just the bass strings in order to slip the wire underneath.  I
used two sizes.  The wire was then pushed against the upper pins
	I put the wire under 7 of the first notes of the bass, and liked the
sound, so then put a larger wire under the last notes because I thought a
little more bearing there would sound better.   I used only a rocker
bearing guage.. However the size should depend on your situation, so as
they
say, "individual requirements may vary".But I doubt if you could go wrong
using size American guage #12 through #16. 
	Some notes do  not have wire under them.  I can not pick them out without
looking.   There seems to be longer sustain with the wire, but a thinner
tone.  But the strings don't sound good to begin with, so they will get
replaced along with the bridge cap.  
	I do not lower all of the strings in the piano,  just to lower the bass
notes, to answer the other part of your question. 
Richard Moody  
	

----------
> From: Helen Pengelly <pengelly@insidenet.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Bridge repair
> Date: Monday, April 27, 1998 1:16 PM
> 
> Hi Richard
>               I was curious about how exactly you installed the wire.
Did
> you
> let down the tension of all the strings across the board or just  the
bass
> section?
> Also what gauge string did you use?
> John Pengelly
> 
> ----------
> > From: Richard Moody <remoody@easnet.net>
> > To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > Subject: Re: Bridge repair
> > Date: April 25, 1998 10:13 AM
> > 
> > Hi Joe
> > 	I just did that to a bass bridge in a piano I own.  Meissner  52"
> > upright. This is because there was so much negative bearing, the
bridge
> > cap (in sections) was pulled off (after being glued down with CA).  
> Don't
> > ask why I did not determine bearing before I did ANY bridge repair.
(So I
> > could call myself idiot)  Just don't do it yourself.  Anyhoo, what
could
> > be an instant fix but to run a piece of piano wire behind the front
> bridge
> > pins.  I know, this is blasphemy to the idea of the relation of the
> string
> > to the bridge pin and the cut, and besides the string would then ride
up
> > on the B pin and beat. 
> > 	But soon the pudding was proofed.  I got an astonishing increase in
> > sustain time of some of the crudiest sounding bass strings outside a
> > square piano. Other strings sound OK, but I believe this to be a fault
in
> > the bass scaling. 
> > I had not heard of this procedure, so thought I had dreamed it up.  I
did
> > not put a 
> > wire behind the back pins. 
> > 	Now all I have to do is cut out a section of the wire and see if the
> > difference is audible. 
> > ----------
> > > From: Joe & Penny Goss <imatunr@primenet.com>
> > > To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > > Subject: Bridge repair
> > > Date: Friday, April 24, 1998 10:32 PM
> > > 
> > > List,
> > > today I encountered a repair on an upright piano that has me stumped
as
> > to
> > > its quality and or correctness.
> > > 
> > > The repair looks to be about 50 years old and the piano about 75
years
> > > young.
> > > The repair. I believe was intended to add down bearing and was
> > accomplished
> > > by placing piano wire (  (  16 gage ? could not measure ) long the
> > bridge
> > > pins.
> > > 
> > > In the bass, the string was placed close to the speaking length
bridge
> > pins
> > > but  the plain wire strings had the added string close to the tail
> > bridge
> > > pins. this was done maybe to avoid different speaking lengths of the
> > plain
> > > wires as the longest plain wire strings had short pieces of wire
placed
> > > along the speaking length alla the bass strings.
> > > 
> > > Has anyone seen such a repair??  Any thoughts??
> > > This is a 'store' piano of little value.
> > > My biggest concern I think is pitch stability, as when seating the
> > strings,
> > > as is my custom, the strings moved about 1/8" and I'm thinkin'' that
> > they
> > > will return to rest high on the bridge pins where they were.
> > > Joe
> > > You know your on the level if your bubble is in the middle.