<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>----- Original Message ----- <DIV>From: "Phillip Ford" <<A = href="mailto:fordpiano@earthlink.net"><FONT color=#000000>fordpiano@earthlink.net</FONT></A>></DIV> <DIV>To: <<A href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org"><FONT color=#000000>pianotech@ptg.org</FONT></A>></DIV> <DIV>Sent: February 06, 2003 12:17 PM</DIV> <DIV>Subject: Re: Henry Herz Belly Brace JPG</DIV></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><FONT face="Lucida = Sans" color=#000000>> Del F wrote:<BR>> <BR>> >>  The = question, of course, is why...? Why go to all that much trouble to build something = that is structurally flawed from the beginning....<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> Why = do you say that this is structurally flawed?<BR>> <BR>> Phil = F<BR></FONT>> </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080> <DIV><BR></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><IMG alt="" = hspace=0 src="cid:002101c2ce21$13400300$0100007f@delsmachine" align=baseline border=0></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>I am speculating just = a bit, but I think the tortional stress from the cross-strung bass is in the process = of very slowly pulling the poor thing apart. It would be interesting to examine = the plate structure some....</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>This problem is not at = all uncommon with early cross-strung designs. I've an early Geo. Steck in my = shop with a similar problem. I'm not sure just yet what I'm going to do with it.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Del</DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>