CA on bridge pins (was Re: false beats)

[Fred Sturm]

Yep, strings in and up to tension. I'm talking about during a regular
in-home tuning call. Only on instruments the equivalent of what I
described as a 20 year old Young Chang or worse - I don't like to
experiment this way with "fine" instruments. Last similar piano I did,
if I had driven the pins until solid, they all would have disappeared
into the wood (or at least so it seemed). CA cleaned up those wildly
false beating strings wonderfully. I even enjoyed tuning the upper
treble for the first time on that piano. 
	This is fast and dirty work, big bang for the buck. But I see nothing
wrong with it, really. You can fuss and worry about remaining residue
here or there, but, in my experience, that's mostly just theoretical.
The piano sounds a heck of a lot better with solid bridge pins. If there
is ever money to do real work on the piano, it won't be a problem to
restring and resurface the bridge - what CA residue might be there will
be easy to sand/scrape/renotch away.
	I prefer using epoxy when I am doing a restring (or partial restring of
capo area), pulling and replacing all the pins and
resurfacing/renotching at the same time. Depends on
situation/circumstance. There are plenty of pianos that will never see
even partial restringing. Or any work besides tuning and "fixing what's
broke." In such cases, I often do a down and dirty job just to make my
own life easier.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

PS I find it very interesting to see what happens when you press on a
loose bridge pin - watch the lights on the ETD. Push firmly to the left,
then to the right. See how much the pitch changes, and how much the
false beat decreases or increases. Then drive the pin a bit and see how
much the pitch falls (funny, it always seems to fall. Doesn't make any
sense, I would expect the opposite, but that's what I find, usually).

Richard Brekne wrote:
> 
> Fred... do I understand that you are applying CA to the bridge pins with the
> strings on and up to tension ? If so you might want to check for build up under the
> string forward of the bridge pin, where the bridge slants off. If you get even a
> little bit there you will effectively change the termination.
> 
> I find that in the long run, its best to loosen the strings while applying. JMHO
> 
> RicB
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html