Bridging the cap

[Farrell]

Hi Phil. You would consider recapping bridges for two reasons. First, if the
bridge is cracked/damaged - recapping will fix that. Second, if downbearing
is improper - recapping will change that - it will fix it only if the
soundboard is good also though. I highly recommend doing the Ron N.
examination of the soundboard crown. Stretch a string between ALL ribs to
check crown everywhere on the soundboard.

When you say "better bearing on the bass bridge" - I would imagine you mean
more bearing. Many different philosophies exist on bass bearing, but in
general, most feel that the bass bridge bearing should be less than the long
bridge. Some well-respected rebuilders use only a hair (wire just kisses the
bridge) of downbearing on the bass bridge - so maybe your bass bridge is
even overloaded!

I kinda doubt this piano is worth putting much money into. The owner would
likely get the biggest bang for the buck by restringing the bass and new
hammers (have the old ones been filed too much?). But if they want to go
further - hey, don't stop them! Restring! If the downbearing is acceptable
(and a piano like this one has a much broader range of acceptability than a
performance piano), just resurface bridge tops and reset bridge pins in
epoxy and restring. I have done that to several low-end pianos and the
customers have been thrilled with them. I had David Sanderson rescale the
piano and make the bass strings. All worked out very, very well. Although, I
must say, that now that I have recapped a bridge, I see that it is not
really all that hard - but simply resurfacing and renotching is definately
easier and faster.

Good Luck!

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Bondi" <tito@PhilBondi.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 7:40 AM
Subject: Bridging the cap


> Hello all.
>
> I was at a customer's home yesterday who is interested in doing some work
> (re-whatever) to her Howard 4'10" Grand.
>
> It needs work. Let's put it this way..the only thing it doesn't need is a
> new plate and soundboard (in my opinion).
>
> As I was inspecting it, I noticed very little downbearing on the
> tenor/treble bridge. There was better downbearing on the bass bridge.
> Sustain at C6 was 7-8 seconds, and I count 1onethousand, 2onethousand,
etc.
> I thought that was pretty good for a little guy/girl! I couldn't get a
good
> feel for sustain on the bass bridge, because the wire is approaching the
> color black, but I was enthused to find what I would consider good sustain
> at C6.
>
> So what's the question?
>
> I have good sustain on the tenor/treble bridge with minimal
> downbearing(using a rocker gauge), and there's better downbearing on the
> bass bridge, but getting something resembling a tone is somewhat futile.
>
> From what I said, would this piano benefit from having a new cap applied
to
> the bridges? My thought is giving the paino as much downbearing as
possible
> with what appears to be a soundboard that has crown left, with a slight
> re-scaling of the bass wire and some fresh felt on the hammer shanks, I
> think this piano would be a pretty good one for what it is.
>
> Would re-capping the bridges bring that much better tone and
> sustain..and..for what reasons do you all re-cap bridges for in the first
> place?
>
> Always a curious roo(k),
> Phil
>
>
>