[pianotech] Downbearing on RC&S designs was RE: Steingraeber

David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net
Wed Jul 7 21:14:12 MDT 2010


Which brings up an interesting point about downbearing generally as it
relates to RC&S designs.  Since the board is designed to have the required
amount of stiffness without compression and without that added compression
afforded by downbearing, how much downbearing is appropriate for these
boards.  I say very little is required and my experience (and experiments)
would seem to suggest that.  In fact, normal downbearing settings might even
be detrimental and inhibit the board's up and down movement.  I've come to
the conclusion that on true RC&S designs only about .5 degree of bearing is
required in the mid tenor, about .5 - .75 through the treble.  As is typical
of other designs, 0 - .5 degrees of bearing in the bass.  It seems to be
much easier to overload these boards than to underload them and traditional
bearing settings don't seem to bring out the best results.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com



At 22:06 -0500 6/7/10, Ron Nossaman wrote:

>Concept alert! It's not the agraffe system that negates the need for 
>downbearing, it's that the board is stiff enough without it, to not 
>need it. The agraffe system adds significant mass to the system, 
>which would enhance sustain.




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