Guy, I too can only concur with Roger that planing the bridge might not be in the best interests of the tone quality. Furthermore, planing the bridge height may reduce the string offset across the bridge to a unacceptable degree. Either a half round bar or a hard maple bearing (which could be conveniently profiled to achieve the desired down bearing) might help you to achieve the results you're after. On many occasions we've used hard maple bearings with bearing cloth glued over them prior to restringing. The maple is easily profiled to set the appropriate bearing, while the felt covering damps the back scale sufficiently without listing felt. I'm not a big fan of undamped rear string scales if they are untuned. Bridge height does seem to have a bearing (if you'll forgive the term) on the sustaining qualities. Low bridges tend to encourage a short shocky tone. I prefer the bridge height to be at least 30 mm and nominally around 34 mm or over. Of course, the rigidity of the ribs will also influence sustain, but the bridge has a significant influence. Last year I inspected a contemporary concert piano designed by a well known 'designer'. The 24 mm high bridges in the middle of the long bridge resulted in perhaps the worst case of short and shocky tone I have heard from a modern concert piano. Clearly, this piano was designed without due consideration being given to the relationship between the plate and sound board panel height (which will ultimately determine the nominal bridge height). We must always be careful about the design parameters which may or may not influence the tonal qualities. Bridge height, rib strength (and length), plate thickness and rim rigidity are all factors which must be considered together to achieve the desired sustaining qualities. Our piano no. 003 (the one exhibited at Reno) had 34 mm high by 35 mm wide bridges, while piano no. 001 had just 30 mm high by 35 mm wide bridges (most other sound board specs were pretty much identical). The increase in sustaining qualities between the two pianos was noticeable. Regards, Ron O -- Overs Pianos Sydney Australia ________________________ Web site: http://www.overspianos.com.au Email: mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au ________________________
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