Article about bridge agraffes - function, types

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Ron...all
  As one who now has a first hand,up close encounter with  the Overs piano 
I'll testify that the sustain in the treble is truly remarkable  in terms of 
clarity & sustain.  This was of perticular interest to me  when I saw how much 
weight was screwed to the bottom of the bridge for mass  loading.  It really is 
an effective modulator of sustain & power.   Even the aggraffed bridge pianos 
I've worked on didn't sound as good as  this.
  I am reminded  of one other thing.....it's not one  thing alone that 
creates the sound we hear in a given piano but many dynamic  components.  
Bearing,ribbings scale etc.
 The challenge in this discussion is to try to extrapolate  what does what in 
cyber space.  Kinda hard........?  but  intriguing
  Dale

I can  tell you from experience that adding mass to the treble end 
increases the  sustain by a considerable amount. At this point in time 
I haven't done A-B  tests with two instruments, one with agraffes and 
one with a standard  bridge mass loaded. But I can tell you that we 
have direct experience of  deliberately mass loading the treble to 
arrive at a desired balance  between sustain and power. Here's an 
image of a re-manufactured piano  which was mass loaded in the treble 
for this very  reason.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai8r.jpg

This  piano was re-manufactured for the pianist, Gerard Willems, who 
has done a  number of recordings using the Stuart piano here in 
Australia. Gerard had  a Yamaha G2 in his home studio which was worn 
out. When he asked me about  the possibility of rebuilding it for him 
I suggested finding a Kawai KG5  shell to re-manufacture it with our 
action and I-rib board with a new  scale. We routinely mass load the 
high treble to achieve the sustain we're  looking for. Those of you 
who saw our no. 6 piano at Rochester would have  seen the mass loaded 
bridge.


 
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