Hello list Reading the threads about downbearing, a question comes in my mind. I sometimes see pieces of cardboard inserted under the felt strip on the plate (just in front of the hitch pins), obviously to reduce the rear bearing. May I ask, if you use this practice, how you ascertain it is needed : by ear ? by geometry ? Is it just a question of volume/sustain regulation ? (But then, what would be due to voicing, and what to bearing issues ?) I often read that a good start for determining ideal downbearing is that there must be some (but how much ?) and preferably with the angle of front bearing twice as large as the angle of rear bearing. I also have trouble in measuring accurately downbearing when using the carpet thread, for two reasons : the first is that in the right half of the trebble bridge, the bridge pins are very close one to the other unisson, and there is no place for the thread to touch the bridge (should I also remove the bridge pins to make the measure ?) ; the second is that as the felt strip at the hitch pins on the plate is very compressible, the reading has some huge relative errors obvious when I press more or less the thread on the felt. I personnally would prefer regulating all this by ear, but I believe that when I do a restringing job I have to wait (in my opinion more thant one year of regular use of the piano) to be able to make a pertinent judgement about the tone. Any comments ? Stéphane Collin (Belgium)
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