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

[Jonathan Finger]

Ron Nossaman wrote:
> It's not about being authoritative. It's about accurate and useful 
> information.
Here we agree - though apparently we're looking at this from two 
different angles. 
>
> There is no way that a string installed with positive downbearing, 
> offset through slanted pins designed to clamp the thing down, isn't 
> seated on the bridge. It surely is, and is nearly impossible to avoid.
Nearly impossible, or "there is no way"?
I guess we have to define "seated".
I'm talking about the string being as firmly set as is safe and 
appropriate, to both the bridge, and the pin put there to hold it in 
place.  Here I think we agree.
I'm also saying that it is possible with the amount of friction caused 
by side-bearing, that the string can be seemingly seated, but not 
completely and consistently so.

> For a string at 160 lbs of tension at a 10° side bearing angle to 
> slide up or down a bridge pin requires overcoming somewhat over 14 
> pounds of friction. What you are doing when you tap bridge pins down 
> is seating the string to the bridge cap with the equivalent of a 14 
> pound hammer.
I'm not seeing how the 14 lbs of friction (which I assume is correct) 
between the pin and the string means that seating a bridge pin is the 
same as seating the string with a 14 lb hammer.  A 14 lb hammer at what 
velocity? (F=MA)

> What's your reason for seating strings?
In short, to seat them - why else?

This answer should always be the same: to make the piano sound and 
perform better than it did when I first got to it.  This is not a 
scientific pursuit for me - rather it is an artistic one.  Perhaps 
that's because I approach piano technology from a performer's shoes.  My 
goal in everything is to improve the instrument.  Improve, not prove.
If gently seating strings didn't improve anything, or offer visible 
(aural) returns, I wouldn't do it. 
Piano technology isn't, and shouldn't be about a system of steps and 
actions for the sake of work, pride, or discovery.   Those attributes 
are, and should be secondary.
Our work is, and should be, about creating the possibility for art to be 
produced, and reproduced at its highest level, thus ensuring its 
clearest translation from the mind of its creator, to the ears of its 
audience.
Our job is to overcome and transcend the physicality of the piano, 
allowing for something more to come through it. 



Jonathan Finger