Bridge Pressure Bar

[Alan Forsyth]

>"I may have missed this but why was it scrapped? Could you describe the
kind of sound it had before you did?"

>Greg Newell

 " Are the soundboard panels and ribs spruce?  Is the bridge maple?  What
are the pins I see sticking up from the bridge in the soundboard photo?  I
don't notice them in the bridge photo.  As best I can tell it looks as if
the grain of the panels is running horizontal (parallel to the floor on an
upright).  Is that correct?  It also looks as if the ribs are running
vertical.  I assume that the ribs that you are talking about are the pieces
internal to the soundboard and that there are no external ribs. "

      The answers to your queries are all yes, except those pins you noticed
are actually the hitch pins on the frame.


> "Did you hear this piano played? "
>Regards,
>Phil F

Yes. I actually quite liked the sound, mainly because it was very different
from a normal piano sound. Hard to describe the sound, but sort of sweet.
Plenty of sustain. The piano was very small though, so one couldn't really
judge it compared with a conventional size piano. It was 1m high and the
keyboard was only 6 octaves, F to F. I Couldn't really test the power
because of the type of keyboard it used, and it was a semi-tone down in
pitch because the wrestplank (32 ply) was , say, sagging and wouldn't take
the strain; it was these factors that prompted the decision to put it out of
it's misery and send it to piano heaven. BTW it was also straight strung!
The piano is a Mahler, made in County Clare, Ireland. It used an action and
keyboard that Lindener/Rippen used in the 70's, but it was not a Lindener.
LIndener did not use a pressure bar on the bridge and also used a
conventional soundboard.

Regards
Alan Forsyth
Edinburgh
"Have lever, will tune piano; have pitch fork, will.............toss hay!"
from the forthcoming book, "A Day in the Life of a Piano Tuner" by yours
truly.