Front Bearing on a Kawai 220

[Bill Ballard]

I looked at a Kawai 220, a 7', all original, from 1957. (Maybe I 
could give Don Mannino its serial number and find out which 
dealership it was originally sold from, and thus whether we're 
looking at a recycled Japanese domestic piano or not.) The action was 
a breeze to play, pattern leading of 1mm leads and I suspect very 
light hammers. Original tuning pins, and when I start driving pins in 
the bass, neighboring pins would chirp loose and leaving strings 
lying slack. In spite of all this, the board sounded fine.

What did confuse me was the front and rear bearings read in the 
middle two sections of the board. Typically, 5 mils front bearing and 
-10 mils rear bearing. The front bearing ranging from 5-8" mils was 
acceptable, but how the rear bearing should drop so suddenly was a 
mystery. I've understood that If we see a bridge lean/roll after a 
few decades, it will be towards the front. This would produce a front 
bearing lower than the rear bearing. And this is inevitable with the 
passing years, as is sagging pinblock grip combined with climbing 
string friction, diminishing brain cells and increasing abdominal 
cells. Or so I've thought.

Am I looking at a bridge which has rolled backwards from an original 
front/back relationship of say 4-8 mils to its current 15 mils? Or 
has the bridge remained as upright as it originally was, maintaining 
this current steep slope of the bridge top, but adding to that a drop 
in the crown to send the rear bearing to -10 below. Or has the bridge 
rolled forward reduced what may have been an even more outlandish 
front/back relationship. There is not sign out wrenching on the board 
at the base of the long bridge, or tearing of the bridge  pinning 
under the negative rear bearing. I may be able to get back there over 
the weekend to check out the crown.

As mentioned earlier, I have no complaint with the basic sound of the 
board. Someone might condemn it for the odd front/back bearing 
relationship, but as the board now sounds, I'd certainly suggest that 
with a new block and strings, it would turn out a fine sounding and 
playing piano.

Just as negative inharmonicity has been proven to exist (in 
fortepiano pianos), is this a case where a bridge has rolled, against 
all conventional wisdom, backwards?

Thanks in advance for the collective wisdom.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"Lady, this piano is what it is, I am what I am, and you are what you are"
     ...........From a recurring nightmare.
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