Quikset on bridge?

[John M. Formsma]

Rob,

Thanks for your thoughts.  You really can't get something for nothing, huh?
:-)  I've done the epoxy repair on bridges, so that's not much of a problem.
There is just no substitute for doing things right.  As my mentor says,
"both excellence and mediocrity are accumulative."

I wonder about the long-term effects of pin tightener on the bridge.  I
doubt that it does it any good, but have not seen from a scientific
viewpoint what happens to the wood.

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
Of Robert Goodale
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 1999 9:06 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Quikset on bridge?


"John M. Formsma" wrote:

> List,
>
> Was wondering if tuning pin tightener applied to bridge pins would stop
the
> false beats caused by slightly loose pins.  I had this thought that it
might
> work, and tonight I was looking in the APSCO catalog for an unrelated
> thing--saw that they advertise that their "Quikset" (p. 47) will work on
> loose bridge pins.  Has anyone here tried that?  What were the results?
> What about discoloration from Quikset?  They say that "Quikset will not
> cause wood to rot or metal to rust."

I wouldn't.  It will likely discolor the bridges and possibly rust the pins
and/or strings, (even if the label says that it won't).  It will also likely
do
little or nothing to improve false beats.  You may even weaken the hide glue
holding on the cap.  If the pins are loose and the bridges are cracked and
it is
a piano not worth a cap replacement, you might want to consider repining the
bridges.  Cracks can be neatly repaired with epoxy during the same
operation.
It really isn't all that difficult and the results would be far better.  You
can
even do this without restringing the piano.  Just do a section at a time by
removing tension and slipping the strings off of the hitch pins and tying
them
up out of the way.  You can clean up the notches, clean and re-dag the
bridge
tops, file the new pins flat and pretty, and your customer will brag about
you
for the rest of your career.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV