To the best minds of our generation (at least regarding soundboards): I just pulled a two bridge 1909 Steinway 6' 1" A into the shop for a total soup to nuts rebuild, which will include a new soundboard. I recall some discussion in the past on the forum about increasing the bridge height in Steinways (which some feel is too low) to increase mass and stiffness. David Love and Ron Nossaman's names come to mind. I seem to remember talk of increasing the thickness of the bridge by about 4 mm over the thickness of the original. Since I am putting a new board in this piano and will be setting plate height for global bearing values on adjustable plate bolts as well as setting downbearing on the bridge cap, I am considering the possibility of doing this. I would bore my hammers to make the appropriate accommodations there, as needed My questions are: What are the tonal benefits that you feel are derived by increasing the mass and stiffness of the bridge by increasing the height? Increasing the bridge height will require raising the plate around the rim with the adjustable plate bolts or dowel system to achieve desired bearing values. Are you increasing the thickness of the pinblock by a corresponding amount to raise that end of the plate too? Since the treble bridge is in effect another rib, albeit one running at approximately right angles to the other ribs, are you making any accommodation in the design of the ribs for these changes? Does increasing the plate height require any other accommodations in the action set up other than boring the hammers for the new string height? I find this idea very intriguing. Several years ago I sold a 6' 7" Kimball Viennese Edition grand piano out of my shop for a customer. While not having a particularly elegant tone, it had outstanding volume and sustain throughout, particularly in the treble. What makes this interesting was the fact that the treble bridge heights were 39 to 41 mm. - a pretty tall bridge. Obviously this would not be the only thing that contributed to these tonal qualities, but I cannot help wondering if it were a significant ingredient. I look forward to the thoughts of all contributors. Will Truitt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090321/0d679d53/attachment-0001.html>
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