<html> At 06:16 PM 2/22/2002 -0800, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>I have to remake a wooden bass bearing bar for an old upright (tuning pin side).  What is the correct angle that the grain should run?  Seems straight forward on appearance, any comments?     David Love</blockquote> I made one from a scrap of pin block stock and stained it dark. Since the old one was split, there was no indexing the pins from that one. All I could gather from it was length, width and height. With the bar removed, the old pin holes and torn wood can be filled with epoxy. Scrape/sand this surface smooth to seat the new cap. Once the new piece was fashioned and before the bevels are cut, place it in the piano, indexing it with bridge pins. Here's the tricky part:to locate the pins, replace the action and run a thread from the bridge pin through the string cut in the hammer and mark it on the bearing bar. After all the strings were marked, use a drafting divider to even things off. First, measure the distance between the first and last single string pins and divide by the number of strings (or spaces - too early to remember).  Set the divider to that number and verify if it is good, if not, readjust the span on the divider and recheck. Once you come out even you can index the pins. Do the same on the double strings by measuring the distance between the left strings of the ends. Map out the left string order, then average the distance for the right string and index them off the divided left strings.  Whew. Remove the counter bearing bar and drill the holes on a drill press but do not go all the way through. When you epoxy it on, you don't want epoxy oozing up into the holes. Bevel the cap now. Install the bar indexing it with the bridge pins. I used my sound board press to apply pressure. Once set, drill the holes deeper for the pins. The lower singles should be a shallow angle unless you have the side of the case off. Stain, a few coats of shellac, install pins. Replace strings. Hope this helps, <div>Regards,</div> <div>Jon Page,   piano technician</div> <div>Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.</div> <div><a href="mailto:jonpage@attbi.com" EUDORA=AUTOURL>mailto:jonpage@attbi.com</a></div> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </html>