soundboardinstal again

[Ron Nossaman]

>Recently visiting Bechstein we were astonished to see that the production of
>their bridges is
>completely machinemade, they come out notched and are stocked ready with
>bridgepins on.

Baldwin does too. Before they became Gibson (I don't know about now), you 
could buy finished bass and tenor bridges, or complete soundboard 
assemblies with ribs and bridges attached, varnished and ready to install. 
They're listed in the parts catalog.


>We wonder how they can finish the assembly of this bridges on the board with
>a precise I thought specific
>  angle of the bridges, I can not belief that the production of their
>soundboards is that standard even. Or are
>the deviations on each so insignificant?

Baldwin had the plate mounting system and vertical hitch pins that made the 
pre-finished bridge (almost) work well for them. That's in the grands. The 
verticals were another story. With an administration that actually cares to 
adhere to a design plan, a soundboard crowning process that is sane and 
reliable, an assembly process and sequence that is indexed from something 
non-arbitrary, and reasonable go - no go tolerances along the way, it 
should be quite doable.


>If we compare to Bösendorfer, Blüthner, Steinway, Fazioli:  they all finish
>the bridges after they are
>glued on the board by clamping the plate and measuring and adapting their
>wanted bridgeangles.

Maybe it helps keep the price up???

Ron N