Stieff bridge-like thingee

[Jon Page]

 >At 02:46 PM 8/10/2002 -0400, you wrote:         OK, I'm still working on 
the Stieff upright.

Tom,
I replaced one of these last year.  You could try filling with epoxy and 
redrilling.
I would recommend MarineTex epoxy for that, I've rebuilt bridge surfaces 
with it and it has lasted.

But on the capo which I replaced, I used Delignit. The pins had drifted so 
far and the apron was
broken loose so there really was no using it for reference.

I cut the pin block material to the desired dimensions and indexed it to 
the area with bridge pins and
scribed a pin line. Fortunately the hammers were still secure and had not 
moved so I pulled a thread
from the hitch pins indexing off the string cuts (dampers raised), placing 
the mark on the right side
of the thread where it crossed the capo to account for side bearing offset. 
I did that for every string.
That produced a fairly good pattern but I took it a step further.

I measured the distance between the first and last single string and 
divided by 'spaces' and set a divider
to space them evenly. I did the same with the bichords, first dividing out 
the left string and then determining
the average width of the unisons and then marked the right string off each 
'left' mark.

With the capo's pin line engine divided, I drilled the holes on the drill 
press but did not go completely through.
This prevented the epoxy from oozing up into the holes when I glued it to 
the piano and gave me a good pilot
hole for completing the process in the piano. (I had already filled the old 
holes with epoxy and leveled the surface).

I made the appropriate bevels, stained & finished. The repair looked 
factory perfect and the hammers and dampers
aligned perfectly. Beginner's luck I guess.

I wasn't that hard to do, just took a little careful consideration and 
planning.
Regards,

Jon Page,   piano technician
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.
mailto:jonpage@attbi.com
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