Bridge Seating (was Re: Where to notch a bridge, & relative effects ????? (Advice sought)

[David Love]

The terminus will be most solid when the edge of the bridge cap and the pin
coincide and the string is held firmly on both sides.  Aggressively banging
the strings down (which, btw Jonathan, was my tongue in cheek reference to
don't try this at home) can compromise this terminus and create falseness
due to the strings ability to oscillate between the pin and the cap.  Worse,
when you tap down the string to hard and create a groove at the cap edge,
you move the effective edge of the bridge cap out beyond the pin line.  When
you do, then, seat the string you can get noise, falseness, lack of clarity.
The best fix is preventative.  Make a cap that is solid and hard and not
prone to expansion and contraction to begin with.  Epoxy laminated caps are
a good start.  Don't tap the strings, massage them down if you are concerned
that proper seating is a factor.  If some is good, more isn't necessarily
better.  

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Joe And Penny Goss
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:29 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Bridge Seating (was Re: Where to notch a bridge,& relative
effects ????? (Advice sought)

Hi,
With all the discussion of seating the strings it seems that there is never
much discussion of what over aggressive seating does to the sound. Since I
do not know would someone please discribe the negative tonal effects?
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr at srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
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