Thinking some more about bridge notch crushing. Aside from making the cap from some impenetrable substance, one way to reduce bearing stress at the notch edge would be to reduce resistance to the upward movement of the string. This could be done by reducing side bearing angle and bridge pin angle. If there was no side offset at all and the pin was straight up and down then it could easily slide as the bridge moved and the downbearing would be enough to keep it seated on the bridge at all times. Of course, it wouldn't sound too good. I wonder what lower limits would be? Has anyone experimented with this. I would think that establishing minimum sidebearing angle would be something that some piano company has worked on. Is anyone aware of any numbers? Bridge pin angle is something that seems less obvious as an item of investigation, but perhaps work has been done on that too. Anyone know of anything? Phil Ford
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