Heimlich this Henry F. Miller

[jolly roger]

Hi Guy,
             If you think the bearing is that kind of excessive, use some
half round bar stock as a counter bearing bar to decrease the bearing,
before shaving the bridge, it will be reversable.  Dropping the tension on
most of the notes and listen to a few at pitch will also give you some
indication, if the sustain and tone opens up, then you have some thing to
go on.
Just a thought.
Roger.
PS great having lunch together at Reno



At 05:51 PM 7/28/01 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi,
>         Wondering if anybody has any ideas on opening-up the tone on a 
>1900 Henry F. Miller 5'7" that I encountered today. It's a massive thing, 
>with a "full perimeter" style plate, so wide in the tail that it's almost 
>square, no capo, and aggraffes for all 88. You know the one.
>         From C5 on up it sounds like it's choking to death, and my guess 
>is that the board is overloaded. I didn't run out in the drizzle to get my 
>bubble gauge, but the rocker gauge indicated lots of bearing. Hard to tell 
>about the crown in that section, for various reasons, other than it's not 
>reversed.
>         The way this plate is built, I had the thought that maybe I could 
>just ease up on the plate a little. There are strut bolts just aft of where 
>the capo would cross-connect if it existed, one strut bolt where the upper 
>bass strut crosses the tenor, one slotted nut in the webbing amongst the 
>hitch pins around B6 (+/-), and plenty of nice big perimeter bolts. The 
>struts are battleship size, and the sound port area is almost filled in 
>with webbing. Thing must weigh half a ton!
>         I was able to check a twin (serial #'s within a year) that has a 
>great tone, and the bearing was very positive, but not as pronounced as the 
>choked-up piano.
>         Down-pitching, unhooking, and de-pinning so I could plane the 
>bridge is an option, of course, but I thought I'd check the experience of 
>this esteemed group first.
>
>         Thanks in advance,
>
>Guy Nichols, RPT
>
>
>
>
>"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
>    -- Duke Ellington, when asked his response to racial discrimination
>