Beveled edge on bass bridge

[Ron Nossaman]

>After looking in the reprint CD, and finding little for my specific bridge
>capping (bass bridge), I decided that I would do it the most straightforward
>way (to me anyway). I had made a tracing, but later decided instead to use
>the old cap as a template for drilling holes. Removed the old cap (radial
>arm saw), and had the hole placement and the angles already there. I did not
>find this procedure in the reprints, so I don't know if this was the "proper
>way" to do it. Made sense to me--is this the "right way"? I know that a
>paper tracing will work fine, and that it could be somewhat better because
>you can relocate the holes that were incorrectly drilled at the time of
>manufacture. However, on this piano (older Howard console), it seemed just
>as easy to do it by removing the top section of the old cap to use as a
>template.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>John Formsma


Yes - don't. If you make a pattern, you will be transferring what was
originally the hole layout on the top of the old bridge cap (with whatever
corrections you might want to make) to the top of the new bridge cap. If
you use the old cap as a pattern and the old cap was, say, 6mm or so thick,
then you will be transferring the hole pattern that was at the BOTTOM of
the old cap to the TOP of the new cap. With the pin inclination angle
involved, you will end up with NO stagger. Indeed, the strings will likely
not even touch one row of pins at all. The technical term for this is
"un-good", making this an un-good condition. Make a pattern of the original
and either transfer it, or use it as a guide to construct a new improved
pattern on the new bridge cap. Or you could lay the pin positions out
directly on the temporarily installed bridge using string and the top and
hitch pins as guides for spacing. Realistically, the pattern is good enough.

I'm glad you asked that question.


Ron N