Article about bridge agraffes - function, types

[John Delacour]

At 23:03 +0100 20/11/06, Calin Tantareanu wrote:

>I have seen this sometimes done by harpsichord makers who put a thicker wire
>next to the bridge pins and let the strings bear on it, not directly on the
>wood.
>The effect is that the footprint of a string is increased, the termination
>stiffness somewhat too, although not as much as with a proper agraffe.
>
>Why would they do this if not to improve the sound? In the ones I've seen I
>had the impression that it contributed to a better sustain and livelier
>sound.

Some might argue that the less the sound of a harpsichord is 
sustained the better!  I think Broadwood used to buy them in large 
quantities to feed to the steam engines.

The best way to test and compare these different devices would be to 
set up a small soundboard with a straight bridge and six or seven 
trichords of equal length and equally strung, each with a different 
type of termination and analyse every aspect of the output from each 
in conditions where everything else is equal.  To compare the sound 
of note on a certain piano with a certain soundboard, bridge etc. 
with the sound of a note from a completely different piano having a 
special bridge device, and to do so subjectively into the bargain, 
strikes me as quite meaningless.

JD