Bass String Length Equality

[Ron Nossaman]

>I am redoing an upright. I have notched the new bass bridge in the bicord 
>area. However, the pinned-cast-iron upper termination is in a horizontal 
>line, whereas the strings are at a fair angle - hence, the left string of 
>each bicord is a few millimeters longer than the right string. I should 
>think it fair to assume then that redoing this upper termination to 
>produce equal string lengths would be of some benefit.

Didn't you make the notches parallel to the top bridge, or did you notch 
perpendicular to the strings? If the top bridge is wood, I'd make a new one 
to accommodate the notches in the lower bridge.

If I was just replacing a bass bridge on a vertical piano without any other 
extensive work, I'd just bevel it like it was originally.

>My question is: would the benefit/difference be audible - would it make 
>for a better piano to the discriminating ear?

With the deviation as a percentage of overall length, and with the erratic 
nature of wrapped strings, it's doubtful. Still, if this happens to be the 
M&H you're putting all that redesign work into, it should be as clean as 
you can make it.


>I should think the difference would be much the same as on a grand that 
>has agraffes in the bass and the bicord area of the bass bridge is at a 
>fair angle to the strings and is upgraded from a continuous single bevel 
>to proper notching. Does this upgrade on the small grand result in an 
>audible improvement?
>
>Terry Farrell

If the agraffe is already parallel to the bevel, notching and repositioning 
the agraffe so they will both be perpendicular to the string won't make any 
real difference.

Ron N