Loose Plate bolts = ? once more

[Ron Nossaman]

At 08:24 AM 9/2/98 EDT, you wrote:
>>>In the twenty - plus years I've been in this business, I haven't ONCE made a
>definite correlation between tuning instability and loose plate bolts, let
>alone strings needing tapped down on bridges (but we can save that one for
>round two). <<
>   Ron I agree with you.  I believe the value in having snug plate screws is
>that there is less lost energy in the system caused by a plate that is allowed
>to vibrate a little more because it is floating a little. This lost energy
>steals some of the strings ability to transfer its energy to the soundboard.
>When I first started working for a major piano mfgr's C&A department, the
>company's own technician showed me this by loosening two plate screws on a
>concert grand around octave 6.  The sound did diminish ever so slightly.
>
>Regards to all,
>
>Mike Miccio
>


Go Mike! Much more plausable reasoning, impedance control. Was this a S&S D?
If so, how tight was the bell bolt? In any case, and with almost any
production piano, that area of the scale is on the ragged edge of barely
functional under ideal circumstances so minor changes could very well
generate greater differences in sound.

Next question, is the observable cumulative damage resulting in keeping the
lags snug worth the "ever so slight" improvement? With possible exceptions
I'd still say generally not.

 Ron