----- Original Message ----- From: "Phillip L Ford" <fordpiano@lycos.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: March 25, 2002 10:08 PM Subject: Varying bridge height (was Re: Floating soundboard) > I remember seeing a piano like this in another rebuilder's shop. I think it was a > Mehlin. A fairly large chunk of soundboard had been removed (or never put there > in the first place). Ah, yes. Mehlin & Son. (Sons?) Or something like that. So much for the double name. > The way I remember it was the area between the last rib (most > bass-wise rib) and the rim was open. Also the soundboard was set into the case > at an angle so that the bridge was quite a bit taller at the bass end than at the > treble end. I seem to recall it had some sort of fanciful name like cello-piano or > cello-tone or some such thing. I only saw the piano when it was destrung and > never got to hear or play it. Odd. I don't remember this about the piano. It seems the soundboard was installed in a more-or-less conventional manner. > I think the idea of the varying bridge height is an interesting one. It seems probable > to me that the optimum bridge height is not the same at the top end of the scale as > it is at the bottom end of the scale. Setting the soundboard in the case at an angle > to the string plane would be a way of varying the bridge height (assuming of > course that you want the maximum height at one end and the minimum height at the > other end - which might not be the case). And why would the 'optimum' bridge height vary from one end to the other? Indeed, what is the 'optimum' bridge height? The added mass of the taller bridge isn't going to make much, if any, difference. And, beyond a certain point, neither will any added stiffness. Del
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