No downbearing ?

[Erwinspiano@aol.com]

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In a message dated 12/31/2003 7:10:31 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
jjgranas@zigzag.pl writes:
Hello y'all and tout le monde,

I have come across a puzzling suggestion a few weeks ago: Namely, that 
downbearing is not really necessary in order to transfer the vibration of the string 
to the soundboard panel, the mere "grip" that the string has on the bridge 
being sufficient to assure this transfer. Would anyone of you with experience in 
such issues care to comment? 

Happy New Year everybody
Wishing you all wonderful crowns, tight pins, and fautless repetition, 

Jean-Jacques Granas

      Jean
  I agree with the rest of these posts.  Look at all the old American 
uprights you want, but you'll only find a few with soundboards that were designed to 
have a crown and hence downbearing & Many of them sound very nice. In my mind 
the upright soundboard is more of a mass driven system. I.e. long strings and 
big soundboards. These boards are tapered, thicker at the top in the treble & 
gradually thin down to about 1/4" near the bass/ bottom end for flexibility. 
    I recently put bridge caps on one of the first Baldwin Uprights (1880) 
ever built. (Gorgeous looking & sounding) The board was flat as a pancake. I 
shimmed hairline cracks and then applied scraped off the old varnish and epoxy 
finish treatment to the front of the board. This is an amazing sounding piano. I 
really think that the hardness of the epoxy finish is also a contributing 
tonal factor.
   Food for the new year.
   Dale Erwin
    Erwin Piano Restorations

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