Too Much Crown?

[Farrell]

Help! I just tore down a 1890 (or so) Estey 4' 10" grand. the other day. It
is actually a VERY heavily built piano - lots of framing. It is
full-featured - four sections, agraffes & capo.

Anyway, the problem. The soundboard is totally trashed. It is really cracked
and the edges between planks are warped up where they have separated from. I
have been drying the soundboard for about a week with a damp-chaser rod
underneath and sheets on top (real nice in there - about 95 degrees and 30%
relative humidity). I was routing out four or five of the 8 or 10 MAJOR
cracks when B-O-I-N-G, the tenor end of the treble bridge springs up and
just about sent me through the roof. The bridge end came up with a big chunk
of soundboard so that now there is a 1/4-inch gap between the soundboard and
ribs at the tenor end of the treble bridge (soundboard is cracked both sides
of bridge). IT'S HUGE.

I stared at it for a while trying to figure it out. Got a string and a
straight edge out. Under the soundboard with the string measuring
perpendicular to soundboard grain and parallel with ribs, there is about 1/4
inch of crown in board (not really a crown, but rather a "V" with the apex
under the treble bridge). Put the straight edge parallel with and adjacent
to the treble bridge and WOW there is a whopping 11/16" of crown parallel to
the soundboard grain and perpendicular to the ribs. If you sight down the
treble bridge, it is fairly straight. It would appear that this is why the
bridge end sprung up.

I guess my question is if I bend the &$%#*@ out of the bridge, block the
ribs up (hey, we can put even more crown in this puppy!) and glue the
ribs/soundboard/bridge sandwich back together what might I have? Will it
likely stay together? Will this do something really wierd to the instrument
sound?

Before you pros tell me what needs to be done, I know (new board, bridges,
etc.). That will not happen for about 10,000 reasons no one want to hear
about. Either I will fix what is there, or I will have to tell the owner
that it cannot be fixed (the owner is capable of understanding zero - I have
tried in the past - she says "well, just do the best you can"). A large part
of what is bugging me is that I really don't want to have my finger prints
of this one, but I am in too deep now. :-(

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com