Strut to side brace.

[Ron Nossaman]

At 02:02 AM 1/6/99 EST, you wrote:
>List:
>
>I tuned a grand piano the other day with a serial number, but no name showing.
>
>
>I found a brass brace, looks original, screwed into the side of the piano
>case, extending to the center of the longest  plate strut. Into the top of the
>strut was a tapped hole, with a machine screw that attached the brass brace to
>the strut. Incredibly dumb place to drill into a strut.
>
>Anyone ever seen anything like this? The struts extended across the pinblock
>area, and were very thin and high, even 2 1/2" above the plate in the pin
>sections.  The customer would like to know the manufacturer of the piano, if
>possible. I thought the brace itself might have been strange enough to
>identify the piano.
>
>Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Bill Simon
>Phoenix
>


Bill,
No clue what the make is, but I bet the brace was put there because the
strut either (1) bowed under string tension, or (2) hummed sympathetically
during play. The strut is under compression, so the screw hole probably
didn't affect it's strength all that much. Makes you wonder if that was a
standard factory addition, or last chance disaster control. If it was
standard, you'd think there would be a few more of them around, wouldn't
you? Maybe it was a stencil production run of three, then the order was
cancelled.  %-)

Watch out for the other two.

 Ron