Bluthner Grand Bridge

[TUNERJIM@aol.com]

Re embeding bridge pins

Newton, I discovered the power of this technique more or less by accident
some years
ago when I treated a no-name church baby grand .  Complaint was buzzing bass
strings in the upper bass.  After aurally  confirming the complaint I
visually noted
cracks along each side of the bridge pins in the upper section of the bass
bridge.
The lower bass section looked OK but the strings were rather tubby.

After letting down the tension on every other string in the upper bass, I
moved the
strings sideways to give me working room.  I then pulled out the bridge pins
with
my needle nose pliers (for most of them  I could have used my fingers), and
dropped
a drop of medium viscosity epoxy (5 minute type) into the hole. Working
quickly I
then reinserted the bridge pins in their proper holes.  Then I repositioned
the bass
strings and brought them up to tension.  I repeated the process with the
other
alternate bass strings.  When I was sinished I had plenty of epoxy left so I
treated
the lower bass bridge pins also, even though they had no visible cracks and
many of
them took quite a bit of tugging to remove.

End result:  As expected the upper bass strings lost their buzz and sounded
crisp
and clear.  But, surprise surprise . . .   no trace of tubbiness in the lower
bass
strings.  They sounded brand new.

Conclusion:  To reenew the sound of tubby bass strings, try renewing the
intimate
fit between bridge pin and bridge.

Jim DeRocher, RPT & MPT & PhD