bridge pin material

[Overs Pianos]

David, Ron N. et all,

David wrote:

>But am I mistaken or did I not hear you talk about the problems with string
>cuts in bridge pins in your class in Reno.  It was my understanding from
>your lecture that cuts in the bridge pins combined with the
>expansion/contraction of the bridge cap over time prevented proper seating
>of the string on top of the bridge.  A problem exacerbated by tapping down
>the strings and one that leads to poor intonation, i.e. false beats.
>Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Greeting from down under, and thank you for your positive 'list' 
comments following Reno David.

I suspect that the pin deformation, which you and Ron speak about, is 
certainly a major contributing factor to tonal deterioration. As a 
string termination, a grooved bridge pin is going to look like a 
grooved capo bar, and we know what that does to the tonal quality.

>That being said, why not use a bridge pin more impervious to cutting,
>assuming, of course, that it is not so hard as to cut the string.

Good point. When I was younger and perhaps more enthusiastic and 
impractical, I used to make bridge pins from silver steel stock. I 
would get them centreless ground to a specific size for repinning a 
bridge with oversize pins to re-establish a tight fit (after 
re-drilling the holes to remove the bell-mouth effect). Silver steel 
which is much harder than mild steel, at 19 on the Rockwell C scale, 
was very much more resistant to deformation by the string - but still 
much harder than the 45 C piano wire. I was very pleased with the 
results, but we stopped using them on account of the time taken to 
cut them to length and grind a driving taper. Furthermore, if the 
string offset is kept to 10 degrees, string deformation should not be 
a problem, especially since the string rarely moves at the bridge pin 
once a tuning is stabilized.

I have no doubt that the practice of re-drilling the pin holes, 
recutting the notching and repinning is a very effective way to 
restore a bridge, provided that there are no checks radiating out 
from the pin holes.

I certainly felt that the tone was cleaner using silver steel.

Ron O
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Website:  http://www.overspianos.com.au
Email:        mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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