<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] More on Single String Beats</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> 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: <a href="http://www.stuartandsons.com/sound.html">http://www.stuartandsons.com/sound.html</a> 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 </BODY> </HTML>