[CAUT] More on Single String Beats

[Andrew Anderson]

Steingraber did a concert grand with custom bridge agraffes for a 
customer.  Because of the mass  and height change they had to do some 
board / bridge re-design, as I recall.  There's and Italian guy doing 
something like this too, not Fazioli.  It is an interesting idea that 
really isn't a simple add-on.  It will take a different approach to 
board and bridge design and will probably make replacing trichord 
bass strings very interesting for us. :-)

Andrew Anderson

At 02:45 PM 4/16/2007, you wrote:
>Hey, all,
>
>I have been following this thread with a fair amount of interest, so 
>now I think I'll be a little inflammatory :-)
>
>There are obviously many factors that enter into the single string 
>beat phenomenon, but I want to talk about one: the quality and 
>solidity of the string/bridge connection.  It seems to me that 
>discussing how to improve the string/bridge pin/bridge connection, 
>is rather like discussing how to use grandpa's whittlin' knife to 
>make action parts just like Renner's.  I wonder if we haven't taken 
>this technology as far as it can go, if we might not need to be on 
>another track entirely.
>
>A few years ago I met an Australian pianist who told me about a 
>piano he played back home, a Stuart & Sons.  Wayne Stuart uses a 
>device he calls a "bridge agraffe".  It's a piece that sits directly 
>on the bridge top, and the string is deflected downward as it passes 
>through, rather than sideways as with pins.  There are no pins 
>driven into the bridge.  See a picture here: 
><http://www.stuartandsons.com/sound.html>http://www.stuartandsons.com/sound.html
>
>I talked to Ron Overs about this last summer at Rochester.  He 
>seemed to think it was a good idea.  He also told me it is not 
>patented, and in fact Sohmer used these devices many years ago.  I 
>suppose it didn't catch on then because other manufacturers saw it 
>as "their" idea, not "ours".  With modern manufacturing techniques, 
>surely they would be less expensive than the labor-intensive process 
>of drilling, notching, and pinning a bridge, and would seem to offer 
>a better termination as well.  I have talked to a couple of people 
>who have played a Stuart, and they both were very impressed with the 
>clarity and sustain.
>
>This looks like the kind of innovation we, as technicians and 
>especially as rebuilders, ought to be promoting.  Also it looks like 
>a good opportunity for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit.  Does 
>anyone have any experience with these agraffes?  Is there a downside 
>to them that I don't know about, other than inertia in ideas of how 
>a piano is supposed to look?  They are certainly a fascinating idea, 
>to me, anyway.
>
>Regards,
>Ken Z.
>--
>Ken Zahringer, RPT
>University of Missouri
>School of Music
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070416/65fd39f3/attachment.html