In a message dated 6/01/2000 8:57:06 PM, Ron wrote: <<"I know this happens altogether too frequently by accident, and with a low elastic recovery high density block, it's a disaster, but with a 5 ply quarter sawn maple block?">> Ron; Perhaps you have discovered yet another "unadvertised feature" of the "Hex-a-Grip" pinblock...........something like... 'Why our pinblock is soo good it allows the pin to rest on the plate thus assuring no untoward pinblock hole elongation!!' :-) I have just started on the partial rebuild of an Old Knabe grand. The pin block is made up of 4 layers of quarter sawn maple which are layered, from the top: thick-thin-thick-thin. In contrast a "Hex-a-Grip" is layered, from the top, thin-thick-thin-thick-thin. This thingee has plate bushings in it and was still tunable although the pin torque was highly erratic..........when I got the pinblock out I could see that NONE of the laminations were still glued together except for a very few spots. actually just enough to tell it was supp osed to be a pin block. :-) It is/was a "floating" block and the crushing of the bushings was what I would describe as "normal" with just slight forward crushing evident. I wonder if the first thick and first thin layers were enough to hold "tunable torque"? Or if possibly some 'shearing' effect was responsible? BTW this thingee is built like a truck! It has both rims made of laminated Oak with the inner rim containing six 1/4" laminations and the outer rim four 1/4" laminations. (how'd they bend this sucker? with steam?) It only has two belly braces but they are HUGE! The sound board still has gracious plenty crown throughout the scale and does not touch the outer rim anywhere. As for the Research Grant minus the "suits" and "paperwork"....sorry Ron it ain't gonna happen. However perhaps you could pad the Grant application enough to be able to add an AMS-P to the faculty. :-) Jim Bryant (FL)
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