At 08:48 AM 6/23/2004 -0700, you wrote: >In the bridge agraffe section the pianos >had a very clear and clean tone, with strong high harmonics. Hi, Don I had a different experience on a roughly 6 foot Sohmer. While the tenor wasn't too bad, I found that above middle C the tone had a decided vibrato in each individual string. By the time I was in octave 6 it was a strong flutter, and I had the devil of a time even telling what the pitch was. The top section, above the bridge agraffes, was completely normal. The piano was at 440, and I tuned it there. No broken strings, and it didn't seem to have had any before I came. I made a discovery -- on a very hard blow, the tone would clear up. I assume that the hammer drove the wire harder into the top of the agraffe hole, and provide a decent termination. By tuning at ff level, I got the thing presentable, though it still warbled at softer dynamic levels. I wonder if perhaps for some reason to do with bridge crown the strings had lost "up-bearing." Or perhaps, having broken so many strings on earlier models, they decreased the angle needed to get over the ridge behind the agraffe, and that led to a leaky termination. I could see why the idea of bridge agraffes didn't catch on, if this piano was typical. Susan Kline
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