>Ron, > What are you doing with a new board to eliminate the need for a >cantilevered >bass bridge? Are you thinning the board or routing it in proximity to the >location of the bass bridge to make it more flexible in that area? Is not the >reason for the cantilevered design to get the bulk of the bridge away from the >edge of the board? Just trying to gain understanding. > >Greg Greg, I think the purpose of the cantilever is to get the longest possible bass string length in the piano for the marketing department without having to mount the bridge on the rim. So, like you say, the mounting point is out on the soundboard where it will let the strings make some noise. I move the bridge in and shorten the bass strings. That gets the bridge mounting point away from the rim, and the string length is never missed. It also lengthens the back scale so the soundboard isn't tied to the hitch pins by those original short back lengths in the very place that it needs the most flexibility. Further flexibility can be gotten by thinning the panel, undercutting the low end of the bridge, or floating the soundboard in the tail. All of these work to varying degrees depending on the length of the piano, and all of them are easier on the soundboard than a cantilever. Ron N
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