In a message dated 2/20/04 9:00:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, jjgranas@zigzag.pl writes: << Jim, Your calculations assume all strings will exert an identical force on the bridge. As their respective tensions will vary greatly, so will the downbearing force. Am I missing somehing? >> Jean-Jacques; No...you are exactly correct...tension on individual strings will vary as will downbearing. Strings of one single note with exactly indentical speaking length and exactly indentical diameters will have exactly the same tensions.....life don't work that way though and typically the tensions within one note will vary,,,sometimes dramatically. For instance on those Baldwins and S&S types where they tried angling the bridge notches creating greatly different speaking lengths within a note, to solve some other problem. String tension in typical thingees will , within the same size wired notes, change dramatically within that wire size. For example on S&S where there are originally 12 notes strung with #17 wire............ with the vast difference between the length of the first note strung and the last note strung the vast difference in tensions is kinda mindnumbing when you try to apply common sense on our genral rule of thumbs to the problem....this is another reason why 'downbearing' is a range rather than an exact value or function of some formula that works on models but not pianos. My view. Jim Bryant (FL)
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