Bridge Recap Time

[Ron Nossaman]

Hey, no fair!

I'm out there in the "Land of NO Mercy" with seven pianos on the list an
hour and a half away from home, with (nearly) EVERY one of the owners
saying "It hasn't been tuned since prior to the invention of mice, which
are (since) in evidence, but while you're here - could you fix...(insert
curse)". Today, I removed 2 unregulated but mercifully unplugged heater
bars, traveled 4.2 parsecs (at worp 0.0000125 (mach 0.014)), and juggled
scheduling nine times while chasing the phantoms of disrepair, ill
conceived design and production, unavailability of piano access at any
specific time, and cumulative neglect (the pianos, not me. I got lots of
attention today) and return to the sanctuary of home and hearth to find
I've been put on the spot by the large hairy technician that isn't even all
that hairy (yet, but I have hope). So be it.

I'm too old and tired to pretend to be bionic, but I can still make a bass
bridge out of horizontally laminated pinblock stock (Delignit, or the 11
ply Schaff stuff I used many moons ago) in about an hour and a half. That's
faster than I can repair the root, recap, etc, so I obviously prefer to
replace rather than recap when I can get the darn thing out of the piano in
the first place. A couple of episodes of epoxying in place that took twice
the time blasting the old bridge and apron out and making new ones from
scratch (as necessary depending on the apron) would have taken have
generally biased me toward making replacements and torching the originals.
I hear that "A" type personalities burn bridges at both ends, but I prefer
all at once. There's a certain sense of "closure" in global flambe'. In
addition to being more efficient and educational, making new bass bridges
instills the illusion (in the customer, hopefully) that the tech is
nominally omnipotent, or at least adequately prestidigitational, and
generally enhances the subjective impression of the final outcome toward
the positive. "Gee, it's really shiny, ain't it?" Gettin' the sucker off in
the first place is the rub, from the tech's perspective.

Removing and replacing strings takes the time that removing and replacing
strings takes, as does lowering and raising tension. That's a given, though
variable, with any bridge repair/replacement. This doesn't factor
differently into any proposed bridge repair procedure than it does in any
other. 

I suppose the bottom line is the difference between the estimated time it
takes to get the bridge and apron off, and the actual time it takes,
deducted from the difference between the time it takes to epoxy the
existing mess, verses the time it takes to fabricate a new bridge, added to
the time it takes to attach the new bridge assembly after fabrication
verses the setting on your butt time required for the epoxy to cure. Give
or take.

I trust that answers your question.


Ron N