<HTML><HEAD></HEAD> <BODY dir=ltr> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <DIV>Euphonious,</DIV> <DIV>Yamaha’s U5 agraffes are used as the termination of the speaking length.</DIV> <DIV>Roger Gable</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=lclgcnp@yahoo.com href="mailto:lclgcnp@yahoo.com">Euphonious Thumpe</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, February 09, 2013 10:50 AM</DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [pianotech] question about agraffes and uprights</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <TABLE style="COLOR: #000000" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top> <DIV>Another point about agraffes, of course, is that the arched surface of the hole interior mates better with the string roundness than a flat surface. (So, I'm guessing, less propensity to vibrate loosely against it and "zing".) My comment about capos was merely meant to discuss reflectivity. No other factors. As Ron said, there are "too many variables" in this situation (relative hardnesses of capos, agraffes, string lengths and tensions, etc.) at least for my small brain to cope with. So be it.<BR><BR>Thumpe.<BR><BR>P.S. I've worked on only old stuff. Does the U-5 use agraffes for speaking length terminations, or are they above an upper plate bridge?</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <DIV id=_origMsg_> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif:font-size:10pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma> <HR SIZE=1> <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN> </B>Roger@Integra.net <rgable@integra.net>; <BR><B><SPAN>To:</SPAN> </B><pianotech@ptg.org>; <BR><B><SPAN>Subject:</SPAN> </B>Re: [pianotech] question about agraffes and uprights <BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN> </B>Sat, Feb 9, 2013 4:40:29 PM <BR></FONT><BR> <TABLE style="COLOR: #000000" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top>Ron,<BR>I was one of those technicians who tried using water hardened drill rod as a bridge pin because of the almost unlimited sizes available to reduce the amount of "drill out" of the bridge cap to facilitate the next larger size. Ed McMorrow  told me that he experienced the same zing years ago. You are correct to mention the many variables into the piano design that dictate the qualitative aspects of piano tone, thus my mention of those that might want to pick apart my explanation -- just too many variables -- and spot on with your comments of the low quality without and the good quality uprights.<BR><BR>Euphonious,<BR>The Yamaha U5 upright use agraffes throughout the scale.<BR><BR>Roger Gable<BR><BR>-----Original Message----- From: Ron Nossaman<BR>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 8:02 AM<BR>To: <A href="javascript:return" ymailto="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A><BR>Subject: Re: [pianotech] question about agraffes and uprights<BR><BR>On 2/8/2013 6:00 PM, <A href="javascript:return" ymailto="mailto:Roger@Integra.net">Roger@Integra.net</A> wrote:<BR>> Certainly, it is known that if you install a hard bridge pin<BR>> made of water cooled drill rod, you will hear a zing in the string<BR>> especially in the mid to lower sections; so hardness of the<BR>> terminations are important.<BR><BR>Is it? I confess I've never tried it, nor run across it. String<BR>termination zings I've encountered have always been from inadequate<BR>bearing or pin angles. I know Ron Overs is a big fan of hardened<BR>terminations, and routinely electroless nickel plates agraffes to harden<BR>the termination surface. He has also custom made steel agraffes to get<BR>as hard and rigid a termination as he can. He flame hardens capos as<BR>well. His pianos are as clean sounding as anything I've heard.<BR><BR><BR>> Now let’s see how the flood of<BR>> comments or counter comment picks this apart, especially those that<BR>> claim that the lower quality grand pianos with no agraffes sound<BR>> “fine” and the good quality uprights without agraffes sound great.<BR><BR>To me, lower quality grands without agraffes sound like lower quality<BR>grands, and good quality uprights tend to sound like good quality<BR>uprights if the voicing is decent. I can't blame either on the presence<BR>or lack of agraffes. There are way too many other variables.<BR>Ron N <BR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>