Lowell Gauge...was Down Bearing (Hartman tool)

[David Skolnik]

John -

I apologize.  For some reason I completely missed the links to the photos, 
which were up to your usual standards.  It must have been the hour, or my 
initial reaction to the your attitude, as I interpreted it, or being 
distracted by the "Hands-on Illustrator". In any case, and apart from what 
tends to come across in your tone, whether or not you intend it, my point 
is that you, more than slightly condescendingly, dismiss the value in our 
knowing any more than what you consider essential for what you do.  Your 
system, as you say, tells you nothing about bridge tilt, or termination 
anomalies. Also, it does allow the possibility of a false zero reading. To 
say, in your semi-mocking manner that "you guess somewhere there are pianos 
with serous bridge roll" seems either uninformed or disingenuous.  Bridge 
roll, implying, I believe, a deformation of the soundboard, is not the 
only, or even the most common, of the bridge problems we encounter on old 
or new pianos.  Are you basically saying that the issues, such as negative 
front or net bearing, which are illuminated by this tool, are unimportant 
to you because you are rebuilding anyway, or because you disagree that they 
adversely impact the piano's performance, other things being correct?

All that aside, I'd love one of them wooden things for my next birthday.

Regards-

David Skolnik RPT, DBH


At 09:27 AM 2/24/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>David,
>
>Didn't the photos show it all? It is a straight stick of wood with a notch 
>cut in it. You hold it flat on the string plane and measure the gap 
>between the end and the string rest. I showed the stacking gauges I use. 
>This tells me what the bearing condition is. I am only interested in the 
>total bearing not whether the bridge is tilted or what. In the type of 
>pianos I work on I have never sean a situation where a slight tilt to the 
>bridge was found to be the source of a tonal problem. It may be a symptom 
>but not the cause. I guess somewhere there are pianos with serious bridge 
>role, but expect that by the time this develops many other things have 
>gone wrong as well.
>
>David Skolnik wrote:
>>John Hartman - John Hartman
>>Can you elaborate as to how you use the method and tools to which you 
>>refer below in measuring downbearing in a strung piano?
>
>John Hartman RPT
>
>John Hartman Pianos
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
>Rebuilding Steinway and Mason & Hamlin
>Grand Pianos Since 1979
>
>Piano Technicians Journal
>Journal Illustrator/Contributing Editor
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
>
>John Hartman
>The Universal, How-to, Hands-on Illustrator
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
>
>
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