Wurlitzer tenor bridge

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

(If you want to avoid the background details, go directly to the last
paragraph.)

Either I ran into a new one today or I'm just not very observant.  It
was my first call to service a 1977 Wurlitzer console model 1775.  The
case was just about perfect, but it had rust on the strings.  The piano
certainly wasn't abused but it wasn't cared for, either.

I was informed the piano was tuned just before the client bought it;
that would have been in September, four months ago.  The former tuner
had replaced a single-wound bass string with a universal and left a torn
string at A#7 unrepaired.  The pinblock is obviously weak in spots.

This piano was so out of tune that I was utterly flummoxed.  Several
notes in the lower tenor were up to 90 cents flat!  I've never run into
anything like that in a piano tuned only four months ago.  No, it didn't
seem to coincide with the weak pinblock, and I have a hard time
believing that even going from a very humid tuning time to a very dry
one would cause that much change.

Well, to the point finally.  It appears that from new, the tenor bridge
was glued to the soundboard at the very end, then cut out for about
three inches, so as not to contact the soundboard for that short
distance.  What's the reasoning here?  Does it have anything to do with
the super-wild tuning swings?

Regards,
Clyde

P.S.  You bet, I did try to sell her a Dampp-Chaser system.  She's
thinking about it, I hope!