[CAUT] Bridge Materials and Design

[Ed Sutton]

We both met the gentleman at NAMM. It was unfortunate. The idea may have 
some eventual utility, but he insists that major manufacturers stop the 
assembly lines and adopt his bridge NOW!, exactly as he presents it. No 
discussion, just shut up and do it. When I suggested I could write about it 
in the Journal, and that someone interested might see it, he suggested I 
would be wise to contact his lawyer.

What I have learned over the years is that, no matter how much I know 
better, there are real reasons things are the way they are, and change is 
usually not what I think it should be. Many composers have written for the 
instruments that exist. I wonder why....

Ed Sutton


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Mannino" <dmannino at kawaius.com>
To: "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com>; <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:56 PM
Subject: Bridge Materials and Design


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