[pianotech] Managing agraffes was Increasing bridge height

[pianoguru at cox.net]

---- Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano <juderev at verizon.net> wrote: 
> Did you interpret the use of threadlock to be in the agraffe hole or at the 
> threads. I can imagine threadlock around the agraffe threads robbing only as 
> much energy as a tuning pin bushing. How is this related to a rigid 
> terminus?

With or without thread lock, if the agraffe is loose, ie. lacking solid contact around the head of the stud in the counterbore, this constitutes something less than a rigid terminus.  To suggested the possibility of vibration of the agraffe, in itself, constitutes lack of rigidity.  

To suggest the use of Thread Lock is concede that potential vibration is a legitimate concern.  To suggest a softer fomulation of Thread Lock in the interest of serviceability is to defeat the argument for its use in the first place. 

Putting aside the concerns for vibration and rigidity, do you suppose it would be an acceptable practice to finger tighten all agraffes, and back them off from finger-tough, to align each agraffe to an alignment perpendicular to its speaking length(s)?  I've seen this in new piano production.  It's not pretty.  All I'm saying is that nothing short of tightening the agraffes beyond finger-tight, will insure a rigid terminus and proper alignment.

Frank Emerson