More on bridge making

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Ballard" <yardbird@vermontel.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: May 11, 2003 4:18 PM
Subject: Re: More on bridge making


> At 12:25 PM -0700 5/11/03, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
> >From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net>
> >  > Is there any reason you wouldn't make a bridge root out of pinblock
> >>  material?  I'm thinking of a straight bass bridge in which the
material
> >  > would be turned so the laminations were vertical.  I have a fair
amount
> >  >of scrap.
> >
> >It doesn't look traditional.
> >(Oh, yes, and Kimball did it....)
>
>
> Del, are you talking about laminations which are parallel to the
> plane of the board, such as in the Kimball. Or a strip of pinblock
> material which has been turned 90º so that the laminations are square
> to the plane of the board?
>
> David has a good question. His idea would require side gluing strips
> together to cover the curved footprint of the bridge. It just
> wouldn't have the combination of maple and oak.
>
> Bill Ballard RPT
> NH Chapter, P.T.G.

You're right. I didn't read his post carefully enough. Still, I don't see
what difference it would make. It's when folks get off on this idea of glue
joints affecting the speed of sound and how the different species of wood
somehow produce different sounds that we run into trouble. Bridges are
bridges, they need a certain amount of structural integrity, a certain
amount of stiffness. Beyond that more stiffness isn't going to make much
difference. Changes in mass will, of course, but even here there is
considerable leeway. More than is going to be felt by a change in material
between maple and oak.

Del