Unusual Grand String Termination

[Ron Nossaman]

>I inspected a 1903 Everett grand piano the other day with unusual string
>terminations. The upper treble has a capo, but the tenor and bass have thick
>pressure bars, much like on the Steinway 1098 Studio. What's the deal with a
>setup like this? Does it work as well as agraffes? Can I assume it was a
>cost-cutting design?

Since you didn't get a whole lot of replies here...

I'd guess cost cutting. Is it any better than agraffes? For maintaining
string spacing, no. As a clean and efficient termination, I haven't been
able to detect any real difference in termination quality between vertical
pianos with pressure bars, and those with agraffes in the tenor. At least I
couldn't detect any difference I could attribute to termination quality.
Could you?

BTW, how was ease of tuning compared to the 1098?


Ron N