Cracked Bridges

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi Jan, Zen, and all,

I'm sure you already know this, but the only value a 1938 Kimball *can* have
is sentimental. <G> Shot taken, here's my call.

Is it possible that the crack is a glue joint that let go? There wouldn't
have been a cap on this bridge so the fix is pretty straight forward. The
first thing I'd do, after the strings are loose, is remove the screws
holding the apron, from the back side, and see if the whole assembly falls
off. There is a good chance it will, especially if the crack is, indeed, a
separated joint. If it does, or you can get it loose relatively easily, take
it back to the shop, remove the bridge from the apron, and either make a new
one, or glue and *screw* the old one back together. If the damage to the
bridge pin holes is bad enough to cost you over an hour of dinking with the
epoxy, make a new bridge. I have always used Delignit scrap from grand
pinblock replacement for this and have been quite satisfied with the
results. There will probably be those who pontificate (at some length) on
the evils of horizontal glue laminations in bridges, but If they seriously
think it will downgrade the tone potential of the bass section of an old
vertical, they're welcome to their opinion. <G> If you choose to just epoxy
it back together on site, I'd still recommend screwing the mess back
together. The bridge failed once for a reason, a little extra hardware in
the fix is insurance against the next one. Besides, it's visible evidence
that you were there and did some work. 

PS: Epoxying old failed glue joints without cleaning off the the old failed
glue will produce an epoxy lamination between two layers of old failed glue.

Hope this helps, discussion welcome,

Ron Nossaman





At 11:16 PM 8/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>OK Everybody
>Here's something to mull over -- the bass bridge on a W W Kimball studio
>circa 1938 has a large crack running diagonally across it as well as
>having a number of bridgepins blown out so there is no sidebearing at
>the treble end of the bridge.  The diagonal crack is a single crack
>(instead of multiple cracks) about 1/8" wide and close to an inch deep.
>Does anybody have any good, cost-effective ideas about how to repair
>this short of replacing the entire bridge?  Please keep in mind that
>this piano is of great sentimental value to the customer.
>
>Jan Otto and Zen Reinhardt
>jano@provide.net and diskladame@provide.net
>



 Ron Nossaman