bridges/seating

[Les Smith]

Just wondering, Ed. Would those be the same churches where you walk in
three months after your last service call just to find that they've man-
aged not only to break ANOTHER half-dozen bass strings (maybe a couple
of the ones you replaced last time, too!) but that they've also managed
to break the sustaining pedal, excuse me, the LOUD pedal, in half (!)
AGAIN as well? :-)

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net

On Mon, 7 Apr 1997 ETomlinCF3@aol.com wrote:

> To talk about bridge pins with strings that ride high I must chime in as to
> confirm the opinion below.  I service many grands in... well ...Charismatic
> ...churches where not only the Spirit moves...but so do the strings.
>
> Ed Tomlinson
> Tomlinson Tuning and Repair
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 97-04-07 21:07:20 EDT, you write:
>
> <<
>  I have an unusual situation that may spread some light (or confusion,
>  depending on how you look at it) on this subject.
>
>  Ron Nossaman wrote, answering Marcel Carey of Sherbrooke, QC:
>  >
>  > NOTICE: The following is my OPINION (based on experience and logic), not
> to be confused with,
>  and modifyable ONLY by, FACT (or gooder logic).
>  >
>  Same goes for the situation I am about to relate....
>  >
>  > As far as tapping strings on the bridge, I think it's not a good practice.
> I have heard
>  > and read many times that strings will ride up on bridge pins and need to
> be "seated" to
>  > stop false beats. This is contrary to the laws of physics as I know them.
>
>  The laws are different down here in Texas, especially during the Van
>  Cliburn Piano Competition, held in Fort Worth every four years.  We
>  noticed this phenomenon first in 1981 when Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, late
>  Beethoven and (especially) Liszt were played about 12 hours a day by
>  young, strong artists out to impress!
>
>  > I don't think
>  > it's possible for a string, with measurable positive bearing, to ride up a
> pin (against
>  > tension), slanted to force the string down on the bridge (against side
> bearing), and
>  > stay there until someone knocks it back down where it belongs.
>
>  That's exactly what happens.  We had one Steinway D that was used in
>  1981 by 78% of the competitors.  It was tuned and tuned and tuned
>  constantly, so it was *very* stable as far as the tuning pin setting and
>  string segment settling were concerned.  After a hard workout, when
>  some unisons had drifted (only slightly, of course [;>, but
>  understandably), Pris and I found that most of the time, the strings had
>  been _knocked upwards_ on the bridge pins from the heavy playing.
>  Lightly tapping the string down onto the bridge put the unison back
>  virtually perfectly in tune.  Go figure!?!
>
>  > The string noise most likely comes from a loose bridge pin.
>
>  Nope...we had just rebuilt the piano and it had a new bridge with
>  positively tight bridge pins.
>
>  > Sometimes you don't have a choice in a concert situation where you have
>  > to make it clean, and right now. Just remember to consider seating strings
> on bridges to
>  > be an emergency only procedure, not a daily practice.
>  >
>  It wasn't really an emergency situation, it was just the right thing to
>  do for the occasion.  But it certainly should not be a daily practice,
>  or even a normal practice each time the piano is tuned.  Ron is
>  absolutely correct in his general assessment of this practice.  I just
>  wanted you to know that strings DO move up on the bridge pin.
>
>  And Ed Foote wrote:
>
>  > I don't drive the
>  > string into the bridge,  I lightly tap the string, in the speaking length,
>  > downward and sideways into the center of the angle formed by the bridgepin
>  > and the cap. It takes very little force
>
>  Ed's description is very good.  Don't use a sledge hammer!  We even
>  _lightly_ tap the string down onto the bridge surface also.
>
>  Then Ron answered back:
>
>  > I have talked to too many techs who do this with a lot more enthusiasm,
> and
>  >  on nearly every tuning. The point I didn't make but meant to is that it's
> not a magic
>  > bullet cure for loose bridge pins, mis-notching, etc.
>
>
>  Absolutely right.  If bridge pins are loose - and it happens more often
>  than we like to think, even in brand new pianos - this is not the
>  correct solution.
>
>  > It's also very definately not a
>  > case of strings riding up on bridge pins!
>
>  But, it _could_ be.  That's all I wanted to let everyone know.
>
>  Joel Rappaport
>  Round Rock, Texas >>
>
>