chisels over to bridge height

[Farrell]

Interesting question. And it would become more of an issue as the backscale 
and speaking length decrease - as you say, in the high treble.

I do my downbearing adjustments prior to installing the cap. I make little 
blocks of wood the same thickness as my cap, and I make them as wide as the 
front-to-rear bridge pin spacing will be. I then plane down my bridge root 
to whatever height I need so that after cap installation, I have my desired 
downbearing. That eliminates the concern you have with your situation.

But you likely have your cap glued on already.

You could get your high school trig book out and calculate the amount of 
apparent increased downbearing you would need in order to result in the 
lesser desired downbearing after notching.

Or maybe the difference is so small that folks don't really worry about it?

Could this be part of building pianos, each of which has its own 
personality?

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
> I cant say what a wealth of information this thread has yielded.  I hope I 
> might trouble you all for one more piece of advice.  I'm just about ready 
> to lay out my pattern and drill bridge holes.  I did a very nice job of 
> fitting the bottom contour of the long bridge to the curvature of the 
> soundboard, which is temporarilly fixed by clamps to the rim to simulate 
> its glued state.  And I find that I need to bring down the bridge surface 
> in order to get the kind of downbearing angles I need.  The question I 
> have is that in an un-notched state... the bridge will present a height at 
> the leading edge then otherwise... particularly noticeable in the high 
> treble.
>
> So... how does one account for and deal with this when planning down the 
> bridge surface for desired string deflection ?
>
> Thanks again
>
> RicB
>