[pianotech] YC Capo Bars

[William Truitt]

Roger:

Probably the answer to that one is that most manufacturers don't care enough
about the quality of the product to bother one way or another.  You would be
surprised to learn that Bosendorfer uses laminated caps, as does Sauter (at
least in the treble), so it is not something you will necessarily see only
on a cheap piano.

As a rebuilder who has long recapped bridges, it is my experience that it is
very difficult to consistently get good maple that is hard enough.  It seems
to be a crapshoot as to whether or not you are going to get it, and you
don't usually know until it is too late, or you just take the scraps you can
get.  

I'm about to take the dive into a laminated maple cap for my next project
for a Steinway B.  It has come to my attention that no less a luminary than
the esteemed Mr. Nossaman himself has availed himself of such materials,
using very thin maple laminations saturated with epoxy to make a composite
structure that is superior to solid maple alone.  I'll defer to him to
describe its superior characteristics if he is so inclined.  (And by the
way, I heard Ron's Steinway B in Rochester too.  I believe it had a
laminated cap, and it didn't sound pinched either, so there!!).  Also, that
most noble of gentlemen Mr. Terry Farrell has been known to make a laminated
cap or two.  

Will Truitt

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Roger Gable
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 7:57 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] YC Capo Bars

Ron,
Yes, you're correct to pick up my association of bad sound to lousy pianos. 
Let's digress a little. Why do some manufacturers laminate and others not. 
Lamination provides for a better string termination because of the grain 
orientation and is, by far, easier to manufacture, but why hasn't there been

a ground swell toward the laminated bridge?
Roger Gable

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] YC Capo Bars


> On 9/19/2010 6:11 PM, Roger Gable wrote:
>> Will,
>> I'll use another word(s), "nasal" or "tight". I've noticed that
>> laminated bridges create a sound associated with the facial expressions,
>> such as when you squint or grimace or even the tightening of the jaw.
>
> Roger,
> While I'm sure you've heard pianos with laminated bridges that sound 
> lousy, as have I, it wasn't the laminated bridge or bridge cap that did 
> it. Quite the contrary. A dense laminated cap makes for a better and 
> cleaner termination than solid beech or maple.
>
>
>> Another associated tag that might point in the right
>> direction is the sound we hear from low cost (cheap) imports in the 5
>> and 6 octave range -- an obvious impedance mismatch either from hammer
>> to string, or string to bridge.
>
> No, that's a soundboard problem, most readily apparent in compression 
> crowned soundboard assemblies. The board isn't stiff enough there. 
> Steinway is notorious for killer octave problems, without benefit of 
> either laminated bridge caps, or soundboard panels.
>
>
>>Remember the Kimball grands of the 70's
>> and 80's, how "pinched" they sounded.
>
> They did, but that wasn't the fault of the bridges. It was the fault of 
> the scale and soundboard design.
>
>
>>Can anybody help (rescue) me here.
>> My association of that similar sound comes from the cheap (low cost)
>> laminated boards on consoles made by Story and Clark.
>
> You're demonstrating more vividly with each sentence that it's the lousy 
> overall piano, and not the laminated bridge cap that is the problem.
>
> Ron N
>