Hmmmm, I have been capping my maple recaps (three so far) with West systems epoxy and the fast hardener. The fast hardener has a high hardness rating of like 84? Plus I mix the graphite additive that creates the slickest, frictionless surface you can find. This seems to up the hardness factor, judging from the sound of tapping. The rendering and stabilization of the tuning is a week. But then I use Mapes IG. Then finish is superior and that probably has a lot to do with rendering and stabilty. Still there is less indentation of the cap. Then again, a custom cap with even downbearing and proper angles is going to help that situation too. Obviously as the string indents the wood cap, the increased surface contact area will increase the friction/rendering of the string across the bridge. Exponentially, most likely. Thanks Don, for the insights. See you at the Pacwest Keith Roberts On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Don Mannino <dmannino at kawaius.com> wrote: > I like that idea, 6 or 7 pianos to choose from in every home. Kawai > sometimes builds some really nice forte-pianos and harpsichords to add to > every musician's choices. :-) > > I have some experience hearing the heavy duty sales pitch for the > "StoneTone" bridge system. Every manufacturer has been well informed, I > think, of the wonderful, unique, amazing, magical properties of this > incredible new idea. :-) Their web site seems to be under revision at the > moment, but their videos and sound samples are revealing in spite of the low > quality recordings. There is a lot of sustain, for sure. > > http://stonetonepiano.com/index.html > > Bridge surface hardness has a definite impact on the tone, as does the mass > of course. How firmly the string is "clamped" to the bridge makes a > difference as well. So using very hard woods in the treble has been common > to improve sustain and clarity of the high partials. Using metal to > terminate the strings really does change the tone - I learned this working > on some of the older pianos with metal bridge terminations, especially a > couple of the old Sohmers with agraffes on the bridge. > > Changing the string termination material at either end within the scope of > the scale shows the differences. Our normal agraffes changing to a capo bar > makes a difference in tone, which is partially smoothed over by the change > in the front scale area from high angle with felt in the agraffes, and open > strings on the capo. The Sohmers stopped the agraffes in the treble > (because the bridge became too crowded there), which was kind of backwards > tonally - there was a clear drop in sustain and added muting of high > partials above the break. I recapped one of these with boxwood in the > treble, and that helped reduce the break a lot. > > I also one time tried putting pins under strings way back when. The sound > was quite interesting, and I removed them right away. > > I'm sure there is a lot more testing of new ideas on bridges that can be > done, but as with most things in pianos it's hard to find something that > hasn't been done before. I think the granite bridge is a new one, though. > I'd enjoy hearing it on a really nice piano, but wouldn't want to do it to > any piano that was really nice. If you get my meaning. > > Don Mannino > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ed > Sutton > Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:54 AM > To: caut at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Stuart & Son on NPR > > That's why I wrote "As I recall." I was uncertain of the exact details > anymore. Also, as I recall, they said the partial retrofit was done that way > because the structure of the Baldwin didn't allow the agraffes to fit all > the way across the bridge. But that may have been my misunderstanding or > their miscommunication. They did seem to be saying that the agraffes would > eventually be offered for retrofit installation. > > On a more general note, I would comment that "longer sustain" is not > necessarily an unlimited good thing for piano tone. Most piano music was > written with the characteristics of piano sound in mind, and does not sound > good on a Hammond organ. Malcolm Bilson argues, rather well, that Mozart > cannot be played as originally intended on a modern piano, which is not to > say he says you should not try, if that's the piano you have. > > Like Malcolm, everyone should have 6 or 7 pianos to choose from. > > Ed Sutton > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110119/a3dce123/attachment.htm>
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