<html> <body> Hi Ron, Thanks for the links to the ABC site, and bringing the attention of the competition to us.  The times aren't too convenient over here, but it's nice to catch this when possible.  I'm listening in headphones now from Nashville, where the annual PTG convention just finished. I know your criticism of the hooked bridge end was not aimed only at Kawai, so the following response is not meant to be a 'defense' of making the long bridge with a tenor 'hook.'  I want to suggest, though, that perhaps there may be trade-offs that have not occurred to you which have led so many piano designers to make their bridges this way.  I am not a piano design engineer, but I can think of a couple of reasons at the moment why bridges might be made with a hook at the tenor end. I don't want to get into a disagreement over whether those reasons are valid or not, as that ends up as a disagreement over opinions regarding the relative merits of the trade-offs involved.  I have no argument against making the bridges 'hook free,' I only have an argument against saying that this is the only correct way to make pianos. I respect your work and your instruments, and I especially respect your dedication to applying new ideas to piano design.  It is a little hard to have respect for someone who assumes that their own ideas are the only valid ones, though.  Piano design involves too many compromises to state that there is only one correct way to make a piano - and how boring they would be if there _were_ only one way! Don Mannino</body> </html>