Bass Bridge in old Ebersole Upright

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hi Dave, As a test, drop the pitch of one string of a unison at  least a
fifth and give it 10 or 12 hard whacks with the hammer (piano) and if this
improves the sound just  a little but not enough lower the string enough to
remove it from the hitch pin.
As you remove the string, take notice of evidence of twist.
 If there is little or none, twist the string two full turns on the smaller
wound strings down to one twist on larger strings, and a half turn on the
double wound ,
On the double wound Its twist is in the direction of the inner wrap.
The first step only takes a few seconds and sometimes is enough to get by
without further steps.
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: Bass Bridge in old Ebersole Upright


> I will assume you are just trying to make the piano work, rather than a
thorough rebuilding job. The thunk may simply be 94 year old bass strings
gone tubby. New strings should fix that.
>
> Remove bass strings, check bridge - if it is not loose from apron, or
apron is not loose from board - I would suggest to just leave it alone. I
have seen some screws in bridge tops to appeared to be original.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Smith" <dsmith941@hotmail.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 6:46 PM
> Subject: Bass Bridge in old Ebersole Upright
>
>
> > I am looking for advice on a Ebersole upright circa 1908 on which I am
> > practising tuning, repair and regulation.  The entire bass of the piano
is
> > very dull -THUNK.  The bridge has no noticeable cracks, but does have
two
> > interesting "features".  One is a buggered-up bolt which goes into the
> > bridge from its top at the extreme bass end.  This one is obviously a
'fix'
> > which didnt fix.  The second is a flathead screw countersunk very neatly
> > into the bridge at about its center.  Having not seen a lot of pianos
yet, I
> > suspect this is also part of an attempted fix, but wonder if any of you
have
> > seen older pianos with any screws like this through the bridge into the
> > apron??
> >
> > It looks to me like someone tried to fix either the dead bass or maybe a
> > tuning instability with these pieces of hardware.  Before I attempt to
> > follow the procedure to loosen bass strings, remove bridge and apron,
clean
> > up, reglue, etc, I did show it to Phil Bondi.  He advised me to also ask
> > here.
> > Help?
> >
> > Dave Smith
> > Pine Island FL
>