Mason bearing quandry

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

HI Ed
  Yeah baby, I get it, ba ba ba but when the strings are  off & you run a 
string from agraffe to bridge & see the gap between  string and touch down point 
...there is  a mile of deflection ,the likes of  which I have NEVER  seen... 
it  DOES...gives one pause.  You know?
  My motto, If it ain't broke, don't fix it applies but  
...............WOW!!. I should have taken pictures.  Ok I will when it gets  back from the 
finisher & we'll collectively extrapolate the bearing numbers  & ALL be amazed. 
  What I was considering is just raising the bolts  a  little bit & call it 
good. A BTW, a new board isn't even in the  equation.
  Yes giddy is a good word Ed. And  Grateful
  Thanks for the post
  Dale
 

Dale  writes:

<<   SO what would you all do? Hmm  Leave  it set up this  way or change it. 
The 
plate sits on bolts as  it's  supports so  plate height is easy to change.
Please  weigh in & I'll tell you what I  think.  >>

I would take a moment to feel  gratitude that such an excellent, and 
proven, sounding structure has come  my way, and with a "pristine belly" I 
must be 
pardoned for a moment of  giddiness at the thought.     
What would I do?  I would set about making as little change to the  
pressures, entrainments, dimensions, etc.  as possible, while still  
installing new 
strings, felts, and maybe even a pinblock.  If that  belly and downbearing 
are 
working so well, how likely is it that whatever  improvment could be made 
would justify the major expense of a new  board.  Aside from the possibility 
of 
making a lesser board,(it could  happen),  a new board will take a year or 
two to 
settle into its  longer term "sound".  This "pristine belly" is ready to go, 
right  now.  Get the strings in on cleaned up bridges and you will know what 
you  
have, right now.  
The definition of  "character" is like one judge's definition of porn, "I 
can't define it,  but I know it when I see it".  I think Dale was describing 
a  
particular tonal 'character' in this piano, and I say, "Save it!"   Put a 
great action and a nice set of hammers under fresh strings on it,  and see 
what the 
piano has to say.

Or, another way to  say it, "Do we trust our minds, or do we trust our 
ears?"  So what if  the numbers don't agree with expectations,  listening to 
the 
response  of the piano will tell us all we need to know if we let it. 

Regards,  

Ed Foote RPT  
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html



**************************************
See  what's free at 


 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070509/27672a29/attachment.html