[pianotech] Bass bridge repair

[paul bruesch]

Hi Ron,

Well, the piano is in my "shop" (garage... it's really hard to refer to it
as a "shop", and even more so during a Minnesota winter) and the bridge is
already out of the piano. The left-hand end of the apron was swinging on its
nail after splitting top-bottom. I think I can handle that, tho'.

The original bridge was capped, but the divots as you say do extend into the
root. Perhaps this would be even more of a "learning opportunity" than I'd
ever anticipated. I'm assuming you would make a solid replacement without
cap, right?

Thanks,
Paul Bruesch

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote:

> paul bruesch wrote:
>
>> Thanks David and David.  I considered recapping as it obviously would be
>> the best repair... but if this was in a customer's home (it isn't) would
>> that be feasible for a 1935 Howard console?
>>
>> But with two votes for re-capping, I'm seriously re-considering...
>> (thankfully only the bass bridge is damaged.)
>>
>> Paul Bruesch
>>
>
> The little cracks are no big deal, at least in the bass. A couple of passes
> of thin CA would take care of them. The divots in the bridge end are
> something else. That's ideally going to need some structure. Being a 1935
> Howard console makes the choice of repair less clear. I've seen epoxy
> repaired bridges that I wouldn't have tried to repair, that were still
> together many years later. It IS a 1935 Howard console, after all. My
> choice, I think, would be to pry the bridge out of the piano, take it back
> to the shop, and make a replacement out of solid Delignit. It would probably
> take me less time overall than capping it in the piano, and I'd have a
> nearly immortal replacement - not that it'll come up.
> Ron N
>
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