Hi all, I'd take exception to stepping up bridge pin sizes with repinning/notching.= A bigger diameter pin will increase the stagger angle and side bearing,= putting more stress on the bridge and making it harder for the string to= render through when tuning. Arbitrary re-engineering worries me (been= "snake bit" too many times by my own past experiments). I always epoxy, or= CA, bridges when I restring, even when I don't re-notch and replace the= pins. I figure, if the holes are haggled up badly enough that a little= epoxy won't fix it, it probably needs recapped. I epoxy or CA new pins in= new caps too. My reasoning here is that the original pins probably started= out tight and are now loose enough to pull without tools. If they had been= epoxied in originally, what kind of shape would the bridge be in now? I'm= hoping for better results down the road than the manufacturer got the first= time. I have seen bunches of nice looking rebuild jobs that tuned miserably= because the bridge pins were tight enough to resist pulling (at the bottom= of the hole), but loose enough (at the top) to cause a beat. Even when the= strings had been seated, leveled, fitted to hammers, and blessed, there= were still false beats in a bunch of them. If the rebuilder had soaked a= little CA around the bridge pins before restringing, the tunability of the= final product would have been much better. My opinion, my experience.=20 more comments below=20 At 01:02 PM 4/15/97 -0700, you wrote: >Hi again: > >comments are interspersed below. > >When a bridge is planed down or sanded down to eliminate the string=20 >grooves, of course the bridge pins have been previously removed. The >notches will have to be re-cut to start at the centerline of the pin=20 >holes. If no. 6 pins were used before, put in no. 7's. If there were >hairline cracks emanating from the bridge pin holes, these need to be=20 >epoxied first. If it is severe, then recapping of the bridge is=20 >indicated. If recapping of the bridge is done, do not use just any=20 >maple. It must be rock hard sugar maple. Silver maple is not hard enough. >Softer maple will give and eventually split and will also allow b. pins >to bend. One now defunct piano company used soft maple bridges and you >depend on the bridge pins of the bass bridge to split out almost=20 >immediately, sometimes on the dealer's floor. I don't want to mention the >name of that company, but its initials do not rhyme with summer, fall, or >spring. > >> The few (re-strings) I have done, false beats were not a problem. >> Also the *most* of the restrings I have seen did not have false beat >> problems in a few years after.=20 >> I was shown how to remedy strings ridding up on the bridge pins, by >> tapping with a hammer shank. However it is temporary. Probably has >> to do with the sound board rather than the bridge swelling (shrinking >> I would imagine) with the humidity and temp changes. But why only one >> here or there? The tech who showed it claimed he could get the >> string in question to do it (become false) by certain playing. =20 > Just curious here. Explain please, how does the soundboard cause false beats= that can be cured by tapping strings down? >I have never seen a string deliberately made to have a beat in it. > Me either, but it bears looking into. The ability to induce and repeat a= phenomenon is the best proof there is of any theory. > >My observation has been that wild strings do not come in ones and twosees >but in large bunches, except on Steinways at notes 51 or 52 where I think >factory stringers pry the bridge down to get the first strings around the= =20 >bridge pins. > >Jim Coleman, Sr. > Yes. All strings in any given piano aren't going to develop the same false= beats any more than they will all go out of tune the same way. They don't= all start out identical, and there are too many variables along the way. Ron Nossaman
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