[pianotech] Bridges and caps [was YC Capo Bars]

[Ron Nossaman]

On 9/20/2010 4:53 PM, John Delacour wrote:
> Hmm. You're all talking exclusively of horizontally laminated bridges I
> presume and not vertically laminated as used by Steinway?

Yes.

>I'd need to
> have more detailed evidence and analysis than a few expressions of
> opinion to convince me...

Of course you would.


> ... but with regard to the Delignit bridge-capping material, I'd like to
> hear a fuller description of this than I see in Schaff's catalogue. Is
> it of beech? How thick are the laminations? Is the wood impregnated to
> render it harder?

I don't like the Delignit bridge capping material. It's not  dense and 
hard enough for me, and I think it's ugly. I make my own capping, with 8 
layers of epoxy impregnated maple veneer.


> When you cap the bridge with the Delignit stuff do you do the whole
> bridge or just the top section plus? Even the very finest of
> piano-makers from the good old days seem to have seen no virtue in using
> the harder bridge top below a certain point in the scale.

Good old days notwithstanding, I use my laminated capping throughout for 
dimensional (therefor tuning) stability, as well as tonal concerns.
Ron N