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

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

David,
If a string is up (I've seen them on brand new pianos just out of the 
case) it doesn't take but a gentle push to put them down.  Tapping or 
firmly pushing runs the risk of deforming the notch and introducing 
falseness.  I inherited responsibility for an S&S D where someone did 
this to the point where the beating was obnoxious (savage 
string-seating I called it).  I couldn't stop the beating until the 
notch was fixed (with ultra thick CA for now, it set up hard and 
without my notes I can't find it on the piano).

Now I do take a notched brass dowel and gently push strings down 
while tightening their curve off of the bridge pin.  This can help 
with stability and tone.  The maple bridge capping is vulnerable to 
damage especially when the strings have a small diameter and that is 
where we run into more problems with "falseness."

After the previous round on this discussion (last year I think) I've 
been on the outlook for strings with a measurable gap above the 
bridge.  I still haven't found any except on some cheaper pianos just 
coming out of the box.  I think Ric's article in the journal does 
cover this issue rather well.

YMMV,
Andrew Anderson


At 10:00 PM 9/7/2006, you wrote:
>IMHO...If I tap a string on a bridge (I tap in front of the bridge 
>pin in the speaking length)  and it moves down...how can it have not 
>un-seated from the bridge?
>
>David Ilvedson, RPT
>Pacifica, CA  94044
>
>
>----- Original message ----------------------------------------
>From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Received: 9/7/2006 6:10:07 PM
>Subject: Re: Bridge Seating (was Re: Where to notch a bridge,& 
>relative effects ????? (Advice sought)
>
>
>
>
> >> Would you also say this about brand new, out of the box pianos that have
> >> had nothing done to them since they left the factory in Japan? I have 9
> >> of those that came in yesterday! :-) Never been in a store or anything!
> >> Just wondering if it would do any good to do a little "seating" on
> >> those! I've been doing some "prep" tuning just to make them usable but
> >> the next time, do you think I should do a little "seating" before I
> >> tune? The three I tuned today, I noticed a few false beats but nothing
> >> really serious.
> >>
> >> Avery
>
> >The point of all I've written about this stuff is that strings
> >don't "un-seat" from bridges in the first place, so no, I
> >don't think it's called for. If you must, push down on a
> >string at the bridge pin with your thumb nail. If that doesn't
> >clear up your false beat (for the moment), then no amount of
> >further seating will either, and you haven't damaged anything
> >trying. That's still my call.
> >Ron N