OK, I'm still working on the Stieff upright. I hope it doesn't become as infamous on this list as Stephen Airy's Ricca & Sons, but as things come up, I do appreciate any input. So... The bass has a bridge-like thingee on the tuning pin end of the string instead of agraffes or those little pins that stick out of the plate. It's made of wood and has bridge pins. It's not mounted to the sound board though. Anyway, there are cracks in it just like in a real bridge, due to the bridge pins moving to the side so that they are nearly in contact with one another. Needless to say, the tone in this area (wound tri-chords) suffers. Let me clarify that. The pin farthest to the right as you face it is fine and could be left alone. The other two, however, have drifted towards the right pin so that all three are in a little row next to each other, nearly touching, leaving an open groove from their original position to where they are now. I need to move the pins over so they are separated again, to where they originally were, but there's not really any wood there, just a groove where the pins used to sit. Without replacing the whole bridge-thingee (I wouldn't know where to begin...) do you think I could just set the pins in epoxy? Would the epoxy hold the pin well enough to be a good termination point for the string? I mean, there wouldn't really be much wood where the pins would be. I would just fill the groove with epoxy, let it harden just a bit, and then insert the pins where they ought to be. Seems like it would work, but I thought I'd ask. Wim, you've done alot of bridge work. What do you think? Tom Sivak
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