Bridge caps

[Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/31/2001 9:40:22 AM Central Standard Time, 
RNossaman@KSCABLE.com writes:

<< Me too, so I quit doing it. This became "The Way It's Done", I think,
 because Steinway did it. They did it because they hand drilled the holes,
 and couldn't control the depth all that accurately. As a manufacturing
 expedient, they just drilled the holes a little on the shallow side so the
 pins could be driven in until they bottomed out (eliminating the need to
 pay attention to final height), and filed down after the fact to make them
 uniform. >>

Ron:
You're right on the manner in which this practice became generalized. At our 
shop, though we have a drill press set up to take bridges to be drilled at 
any angle and depth we like. After pinning (left slightly high, but totally 
bedded in the bridge, i.e. all the way to the bottom), the tops are filed 
down to a perfectly even height which should be no greater than the diameter 
of the string which contacts it. This way, we get as much of the pin in the 
bridge as possible, yet have just enough dimension left for evening out and 
getting rid excess pin height which leads to energy-leaking. 
PR-J