Shubert Upright Bridge

[Delwin D Fandrich]

pianoman wrote:
> 
> Today I tuned a pre-1895 Shubert upright.  Instead of having an upper and
> lower bridge pin on the bridge, the middle of the bridge was hollowed out
> with a pressure bar appliance was screwed down on top of the strings.



To James Grebe, Warren Fisher, et al:

Well, now, wait a just a moss (We don't grow cotton out here, but there
is lots of fuzzy green stuff that I think is moss. Or something.) pickin
minute here! Just what was really so wrong with that Shubert bridge
system? 

One function of the piano bridge is to provide an acoustical and
physical termination for the vibrating (speaking) portion of the string.
Another is to couple the energy from that vibrating string to the
soundboard/rib assembly. Apparently, this arrangement did both. At least
to some extent.

Down bearing, of course, is a whole other subject from string
termination. 

James, you didn’t mention what condition the bridge termination system
was in. Just that it looked odd. Apparently, the system is still
working—at least to some extant. After 102 years, that gives the system
some credibility all by itself. I’d really like to know more about it.

I have some questions.
1) What did the strings actually rest on? Wood? Some type of metal
insert? Anything?
2) Did this system continue all the way down through the bass?
3) What condition was the system in? Had the bridge developed any cracks
where the screws from the “pressure bar” went into the wood?
4) Was the “pressure bar” continuous through each section, or were
individual bars used at each unison?
5) How much string deflection was there?

I’ve been puzzling over alternatives to the conventional offset bridge
pin arrangement for some time now and I’d like to know more. It seems to
me that, after a couple of hundred years of development, some viable
system other than the bridge pin arrangement currently popular should
have evolved.

I realize you probably didn’t spend a whole lot of time examining the
piano, but anything you can remember will be appreciated. A few of the
things Rube invented actually worked pretty well, you know.

Thanks,
ddf