What's the best way to check bearing on a strung piano, and what's "ideal", please.

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Thump

You are not a dope !  And pumping certain information on such topics on 
this list is far from the easiest thing. You can easily end up with 
several different answers.

But having just made a bungle of it on my own job, and having fixed it,  
the though occured to me that before I went and bored the holes on my 
bridge I could have easily set the whole plate up at 0 bearing.  
Measuring at say 15 points or so the distance down to the soundboard I 
could then, taking into consideration the length of the back scale at 
each point easily figure exactly how much lower I needed to go for any 
desired string deflection angle.  One has to figure into the thing that 
the end deflection will be less because the board will give a bit.  How 
much you need to account for here is dependent on how easily your board 
will give... You perhaps dont know that so maybe you have some cute way 
of roughsitmating it :)

Hope this helps... at least a bit

Cheers
RicB

    I'll admit that I know little of this, and have, in the past, just
    been happy if it "looks pretty good".   But I'm about to restore the
    finest upright I've  ever seen: a  1902 Ivers and Pond scale 19,
    56"  tall,  and want to be more  "scientifical".     It does have
    bearing all along the bridge, but I wonder if it's  enough, or even
    too much ? (here seems to be plenty in the bass, also. ) I was
    planning to re-crown the board ( a la D.L. Bullock's system, which
    hes' successfully used for years --and I'll be very happy to share )
    but don't want to "overdo it" !  In any event, this seems an ideal
    opportunity to share "before and after" specs with everyone, about
    how well this system works,

    So:
         I have the brass thingee from Schaff, and feeler guages, the
    dial indicator bearing checker with three feet ( also from Schaff
    )   and an old busted Lowell
    guage. ( Which I'd get another of, if convinced it was worth it. ) 
    Which of these should I use, and what would be acceptable
    measurements for a HUGE old upright like this? Can I determine it
    with the brass thingee and the feeler guages, or the dial indicator
    ?  Or do I need the angle of deflection indicated by the Lowell guage ?
    ( Sorry for being such a dope. )

         Thump