Hello all. I was at a customer's home yesterday who is interested in doing some work (re-whatever) to her Howard 4'10" Grand. It needs work. Let's put it this way..the only thing it doesn't need is a new plate and soundboard (in my opinion). As I was inspecting it, I noticed very little downbearing on the tenor/treble bridge. There was better downbearing on the bass bridge. Sustain at C6 was 7-8 seconds, and I count 1onethousand, 2onethousand, etc. I thought that was pretty good for a little guy/girl! I couldn't get a good feel for sustain on the bass bridge, because the wire is approaching the color black, but I was enthused to find what I would consider good sustain at C6. So what's the question? I have good sustain on the tenor/treble bridge with minimal downbearing(using a rocker gauge), and there's better downbearing on the bass bridge, but getting something resembling a tone is somewhat futile. >From what I said, would this piano benefit from having a new cap applied to the bridges? My thought is giving the paino as much downbearing as possible with what appears to be a soundboard that has crown left, with a slight re-scaling of the bass wire and some fresh felt on the hammer shanks, I think this piano would be a pretty good one for what it is. Would re-capping the bridges bring that much better tone and sustain..and..for what reasons do you all re-cap bridges for in the first place? Always a curious roo(k), Phil
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