[pianotech] Worst Bass/Tenor Crossover in Universe

[Ron Nossaman]

> I have heard that agraffe bridge systems like the Stuart is designed to
> be used at "zero bearing" ( I believe that Stuart claims to be such, if
> I am not mistaken).  But I have never understood why, if all else about
> a soundboard assembly is equal in design and construction, that this
> would be the case.  It seems to me like they would have more or less the
> same requirements of bearing and crown to drive the board.
>
> Will Truitt

Nothing else about the soundboard assembly is equal in design and 
construction, that's why the confusion. The Stuart soundboards bear no 
resemblance to "conventional" boards. In the one I crawled under, the 
"ribs" were a cross lattice like a Japanese room divider, not sized to 
be load bearing or particularly stiff, and not crowned. String bearing 
was average zero throughout. The only thing I could see that allowed it 
to work at all was the cumulative mass of the bridge agraffes.

Ron N