Hi List! I am restringing my first piano. (yea!!!) Both bridges were in pretty good shape (only a few supertiny hairline cracks in hi treble and low bass), no bridge rolling, downbearing was distributed real nice, the uncracked soundboard had a real smooth 1/8"+ crown, piano had no buzzes, and glue joints appeared intact. Seemed to me like a great candidate for leaving the bridges but simply replacing the slightly loose bridge pins (the fact that the piano is a 1930s Aeolean 5' 0" grand kinda influenced my recommendation to the owner also!). My question is: What is the best way to get the epoxy into the bridge pin hole. I have done the bass bridge and used West System epoxy applied with a length of piano wire. I was able to make a minimal mess (just a little on the top of the bridge at the hole edge upon application - easily wiped off prior to pin insertion), but inserting the wire 3 to 5 times into each hole to get enough epoxy in took me two hours to just do the bass bridge. I watched Christian Bolduc position, install, measure downbearing, plane, drill, notch, and pin a new bass and treble bridge in less time than it will take me to epoxy my treble bridge (and his piano - an S&S model A3 - had more strings!!!). I realize he has likely done one or two bridges before, but I have quite a bit of experience with epoxy and woodworkng and feel I was moving along at a reasonable pace for the task. Is there a better way? I can get a big glob if epoxy on the wire - enough for one hole - but if I try to get it into the hole, most of it would run down the side of the bridge. Any ideas? Is it easier to just recap a bridge? Terry Farrell Piano Tuning & Service Tampa, Florida mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
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