Grotrian Steinweg bridge

[David Love]

I was crawling around under a Grotrian Steinweg (1912) today (as I'm more
prone to do following our discussions about cutoff bars and such) and I
noticed that the bridge had supporting structure placed directly underneath
the board following the exact configuration of the bridge above.  It was
notched to accommodate the ribs, but otherwise was continuous along the
length of the long bridge.  Also on this piano, I noticed that there were
several kerf cuts at the lower end of the tenor bridge coming up from the
soundboard to a point just below the cap and spaced about every 5 - 6
inches.  On the bass bridge there were similar kerfs cut with a spacing of
about 3-4 inches.  The piano had quite a nice tone still for an original
board and strings.  What is the purpose and effectiveness of these
particular design elements.

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net