Agraffes

[Ron Overs]

Terry and list,

Terry wrote;

>. . . I have another questions for you or anyone with
>an opinion. I believe Bosendorfer uses a brass agraffe but drills a hole
>(presumably horizontal, perpendicular to the string direction, and at the
>top of the hole or so) through the agraffe and inserts a stainless steel
>rod. The string then rides on the rod, thus eliminating any brass
>termination problems. As long as a rod of preferred material and shape is
>used (similar perhaps to what one might desire for the capo surface), it
>seems as if this would be a better solution, and would be an easy option to
>implement.

Your thinking is certainly heading in the right direction.

The agraffes which Bösendorfer use, and to which you refer, are 
available from Renner. The theory is as you describe, but the 
practise is that they are very little better than normal agraffes 
made from free machining brass. Unfortunately, the pin doesn't 
eliminate the problems because the pin isn't much harder than the 
brass.

You might then conclude that inserting a hardened pin might solve the 
problem. Well this occurred to me too back in 1996, so I tried it. 
Unfortunately, the string alignment through the agraffe string hole 
is never perfect. This caused the strings to slide across the 
hardened pins to the edge of the brass hole, only the resume their 
noise creating activity.

I may be in a position to shed further light on this topic at Reno. 
But at present, this is all I can contribute regarding the pinned 
agraffes. I'm working on some new stuff here (when time permits).

Hope this helps.

Ron O

Footnote: For those of you who may be wondering what keystrokes are 
used to create the German  umlaut, ie. to type Bösendorfer instead of 
Bosendorfer. Before you type the letter over which you intend to 
place the umlaut, hold down the option key (Mac speak) while you 
press U, then type the desired letter. Neat uh.
-- 
Overs Pianos
Sydney Australia
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Web site: http://www.overspianos.com.au
Email:     mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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