Mason & Hamlin AA scale.

[Ron Nossaman]

>    In the case of the Mason AA which I started this thread discussing 
> there is any reticence at least on my part to improve this piano. My only 
> (major) limitation is the plate But which is also true of the old Stwy A 
> being currently mentioned. I have reproduced one of those with the 
> original bridge & string scale & with a really good board & bearing setup 
> it was quite good. In retrospect though the next one will probably get a 
> closer look in the modification dept. I'm not a fan of the three bridge config.

I am, more and more, a big fan of the three bridge configuration. In fact, 
if I were designing a new piano and could design a plate I wanted (rather 
than working around the existing one), I'd still give first consideration 
to using three bridges. The poor examples of three bridge configurations we 
see aren't the result of using three bridges instead of two. They're the 
result of poor scale AND soundboard design. Rather than trying to tweak the 
existing scale on top of the original soundboard design, you would be ahead 
building a board designed to accommodate the bridges designed to 
accommodate the scale designed to accommodate the existing plate.

There are at least two people posting to this list who do this sort of 
re-design on a per-piano basis (as opposed to having a specifically 
established template for every model of every manufacturer that ever 
existed). Del is one, and I am another. But you knew that.

Ron N