Sohmer Agraffes and Plate Height"

[Daleboy@AOL.COM]

Dear List,
    I recently completed a rebuild on a Sohmer Grand, 5'10", ex-player circa 
1920.
I had not rebuilt a grand with bridge agraffes before and was apprehensive 
about what the end results may be like. The piano turned out to be VERY clean 
as far as unison and individual string tone. Even the FAC readings on the 
initial tunings rivaled some of the most highly regarded vintage grands. 
Overall tone guality was quite good and sustain was actually quite high but 
not objectionable.
    I removed the agraffes from the bridge and buffed them which made for a 
rather stunning visual effect with the refinished plate and soundboard. I 
found them to be quite snug in the bridge hole as the threaded part of the 
agraffe is pretty long. Not a loose one in the entire bridge.
    I noted in the disassembly that the plate was torqued/flexed A LOT. The 
nose bolts were up at least 2 or 3 complete turns. This piano was previosly 
rebuilt and I suspected that they had been moved. Upon reassembly I lowered 
the nose bolts and reset them to just touch the plate AFTER all of the plate 
bolts/screws were installed.
    In reading previous posts about the horrific false beats that some have 
experienced with the Sohmer, I am wondering if there may be something in the 
restringing process causing the problem. Twisted wire, IMHO is the culprit 
here but the plate height adjustment should not be overlooked. If the plate 
is too high in this design, there may not be enough Down Bearing angle to the 
agraffe to have good termination at the agraffe. 
    Given the fact that this piano was a player and lived the bulk of its 
life in a famous L.A. theatre indicates that it had a LOT of use. I am sure 
that all bridge/plate agraffes are original and after its second rebuild 
remain convinced that the agraffes are very high quality and can take massive 
amounts of abuse. Looking at the false beats in recent post about Sohmer 
Grands may warrant further examination from a different perspective. Hope 
this helps.
Regards,
Dale Whitehead, RPT
Franklin Piano Restorations