how long for gluing a split bridge

Farrell mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com
Tue Feb 6 09:50:37 MST 2007


Here are a couple photos of a bass bridge repair I did a few years ago. IMHO a perfectly suitable repair for an old upright. The entire length of the bridge where the bicords are was cracked and the pins had moved such that there was zero dogleg to the strings as they passed over the bridge top. I simply pulled all the pins from the afflicted area, filled with West System epoxy thickened with their 404 High-Density filler, pushed bridge pins back in place and clamped bridge body back to (or near) its original width. Clean up squeeze out. As you can see from the pin alignment, the results are less than perfect appearance-wise (the pins at the tenor end actually are at an angle, but the camera angle makes it look like they are standing up straight), but it works as good as new and is pretty fast and easy to do.




Once you put the strings back on, you'd really have to know to look for the repair to be able to see it.



I don't have a record of my hours on the job, but it took three visits - the initial inspection and estimate, the epoxy work, and then a few days later I came back to re-install the bass strings, do a pitch raise and tune the piano. The total bill was $595 - that was seven years ago.

Hoping not to burst anyone's bubble, but given the piano in question, is the split bridge causing any problems? Buzzing? Loss of tone? Tuning instability? If the answer to those questions is no, then is there really a good reason to fix the bridge? Are there perhaps a laundry list of other wear-related items that are impeding the performance of this piano? Five hundred bucks might better be put toward a full regulation, or perhaps even a newer piano!

Just food for thought.

Hope this helps.

Terry Farrell
Tampa, Florida
  ----- Original Message ----- 

  "Exactly where do you propose "gluing" a split bridge?
  Along the row of bridge pins?
  Yes.
  Where in the scale is the split? What kind of piano?"
  Bass bridge. The piano is a Hobart M. Cable full upright from 1904.

  By the way, I saw a post in the archives that mentioned 4-6 hours for the entire job.

  Daniel Carlton
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