Horn trouble update

[MHoffman11@aol.com]

Wow is this a great list or what?

Thanks for the prompt responses from everyone.

Del, I will take a look tomorrow regarding the anchor.  The bolt is in the 
center of a metal plate affixed with two screws.  After some reflection, I 
thought that maybe my breaking the beckets with a shear had caused the bolt 
to vibrate and turn in a bit.  I don't think this happened, though, as the 
bolt is fairly firm to any sympathetic vibration.

Interestingly, I strung the tenor section today and put only enough tension 
on the new strings to hold the coils in shape.  And sure enough, the gap has 
shunk.  Movement is occuring...surely a lot more will come with concert 
tension.

Now what?  There are no visible cracks in the plate.  I cranked the pinblock 
screws and plate bolts before any beginning stringing.

Thanks to all for the help.


<< 
 Mike,
 
 The question is, what is the bolt anchored to in the belly rail?  If it just
 dead-ends into the belly rail without much support behind it there easily 
could
 be enough wood movement to account for a 4 to 5 mm gap once string tension is
 removed from the plate.  It is also possible that it wasn't adjusted 
correctly at
 the factory.  In any case, you can be quite sure that it was the intention 
of the
 designer that the bolt and horn meet prior to the application of string 
tension.
  >>