[pianotech] Totally glueless

Ron Nossaman rnossaman at cox.net
Wed Jan 30 07:11:56 MST 2013


On 1/28/2013 9:43 PM, Ed Foote wrote:


> The bigger question I thought of was of transmission of
> sound through this joint.

Yes, that's been made a big deal of forever. There is no sound 
transmission through the joint though, at least not as is universally 
presumed. The strings move the bridge and the bridge moves the 
soundboard. As long as the bridge is sufficiently attached that it does 
move the soundboard, you won't hear the difference. In those old 
uprights with "cat on the screen door syndrome" there the bridge falls 
to the bottom when the strings are removed, you can definitely hear the 
difference, but I've restrung a number of players where the glue had let 
go but there were screws holding the bridge on, that sounded quite 
reasonable (age factored in) before tear down.

I find it interesting that people believe (without evidence of any sort) 
that horizontal glue joints in bridges impede sound transmission (or 
vibrations), as does lack of glue. Apparently, pianos are impossible 
objects that can't possibly function under any circumstances. Or...

Ron N


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