Hi, Wondering if anybody has any ideas on opening-up the tone on a 1900 Henry F. Miller 5'7" that I encountered today. It's a massive thing, with a "full perimeter" style plate, so wide in the tail that it's almost square, no capo, and aggraffes for all 88. You know the one. From C5 on up it sounds like it's choking to death, and my guess is that the board is overloaded. I didn't run out in the drizzle to get my bubble gauge, but the rocker gauge indicated lots of bearing. Hard to tell about the crown in that section, for various reasons, other than it's not reversed. The way this plate is built, I had the thought that maybe I could just ease up on the plate a little. There are strut bolts just aft of where the capo would cross-connect if it existed, one strut bolt where the upper bass strut crosses the tenor, one slotted nut in the webbing amongst the hitch pins around B6 (+/-), and plenty of nice big perimeter bolts. The struts are battleship size, and the sound port area is almost filled in with webbing. Thing must weigh half a ton! I was able to check a twin (serial #'s within a year) that has a great tone, and the bearing was very positive, but not as pronounced as the choked-up piano. Down-pitching, unhooking, and de-pinning so I could plane the bridge is an option, of course, but I thought I'd check the experience of this esteemed group first. Thanks in advance, Guy Nichols, RPT "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues." -- Duke Ellington, when asked his response to racial discrimination
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