Steinway Bridge Material

[John Delacour]

At 8:25 AM -0500 25/2/02, Farrell wrote:
>Wow! Really? Ash is a fair bit harder than most mahoganies - is it 
>not? You mention age. When were the two woods used? If maple is 
>supposed to be such great wood for a bridge, why don't they just 
>laminate layers of hard maple? What is the theory behind using 
>mahogany or ash? Or is this simply "how the masters did it" 
>mentality. I realize why hard maple is a desirable wood for a bridge 
>cap (it's hard!), but what characteristics does it have that make it 
>more desirable than other woods for the bridge body (I'm making the 
>assumption here that it is more desireable because one sees it so 
>often).
>
>Terry Farrell
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "John Delacour" <JD@Pianomaker.co.uk>
>  > Sometimes mahogany and sometimes ash, depending on the age of the 
>instrument.

I should have said I was talking of Hamburg Steinways (I've only ever 
worked on one NY model) but I imagine the practice was similar.  The 
ash was used before the first war; during the 1920s maple only 
laminae were used, and the mahogany from I don't know when -- in fact 
I have no written record of a particular piano.  The bubinga 
mentioned by Ron O. is a much harder wood than mahogany (called also 
African Rosewood) and it surprises me that this is used;  I guess 
this is in recent pianos.  Fazioli uses mahogany, I think.

Maple (or in Europe more often beech) is used for bridges more for 
its ability to hold the pins than for any tonal reason.  A bridge 
made entirely of ash or many other open-grained woods would simply 
split to pieces, but ash is very bendable even without steam heat; 
for that reason it is convenient for rims etc.  Erard rims and inner 
rims were made entirely of ash.  I don't know when Steinway began 
with laminated bridges but probably in the 1870's, when ash would 
have been much used in the industry.  I also think that, like so many 
of Steinway's practices, the laminated bridge was chosen because it 
was cheaper to produce and less wasteful of material.  It is also 
stiffer and more uniform, but I think commercial considerations would 
have come first.

A bass bridge is quite often made of spruce.  So long as the capping 
is of quartered beech or maple and deep enough, it will do the job 
and may even be better.

JD