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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=sec@overspianos.com.au =
href="mailto:sec@overspianos.com.au">Ron
Overs</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> January 25, 2003 4:03 =
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Capo Hardening, =
was: Tuning
problems under capo bar</DIV>
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<BLOCKQUOTE cite type="cite"> <FONT face=Arial =
size=-1>Alternatively,
does anybody ever grind the original capo off and overlay a hardened =
bar,
fitted for height? </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>We do this all the time with the front duplex bars, you can place =
them in
best position for de-tuning and at the shortest possible length. The =
Steinway
D we did late last year has the cleanest treble we've ever heard on a =
D. I
ground the original duplex bars off and filled the plate topography =
with body
filler before positioning the bars. Looks very tidy and I like to =
clarity
now.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=-1> </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" =
color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Those are =
the
counterbearing bars. And we always grind those off and replace them with =
brass
half-ovals to increase the string deflection angle and shorten the front =
duplex
string length as much as is practical.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" =
color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>We've also =
replaced the
V-bars from time to time. The process is simple but time-consuming: The =
original
V-bars are ground off and new ones are fabricated from some suitable =
material.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" =
color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>I'm not =
looking for
something quite as hard as Ron is so my material of choice is either =
silicon
bronze or manganese bronze. Both are harder than the gray iron used in =
piano
plates. A wood pattern is made using the sweep of the original V-bar as =
a guide
(unless that is what we are correcting) and new bars are cast at a local =
brass/bronze foundry. They are pinned to the bottom of the capo tastro =
bar to
hold them in place during stringing. Once the piano is strung the force =
of the
strings will be adequate to hold them in place though we do use a =
steel-filled
epoxy between the casting and the capo tastro to improve mechanical
coupling.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" =
color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#000080>Del</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>