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STEINWAY UPDATE NO.6 Feb 2010

A New Year and work starts again on the project.
Most of January was taken up with the work on the bridges.Visually no great leaps forward just a lot of measuring,adjusting,measuring,adjusting etc...This is time consuming work to get it right.

ANGLES,DEGREES AND ALL THINGS BRIDGES
With the plate in position,the correct height of the bridges had to be found to give a correct downbearing from the strings.Downbearing is the downward pressure that the strings impose on the bridges. I used a guage specially manufactured for the job but found it really difficult to use accurately because readings would vary just by the way it was held in its vertical position,lean it slightly one way and the reading would alter.Also the points that had to rest on the strings were rounded so it had the habit of slipping off.I would not recommend any rebuilder to use one,it was a waste of £80.
Interestingly enough,I found the best solution in an 'Iphone' application.It was 100% accurate to a tenth of a degree and all that was needed was to make a cradle for the Iphone to sit in..A very simple and quick way of getting a satisfactory result.If any rebuilder out there wants the details of the application and how I did it, I will be happy to oblige.
Once the string height was found,slots were cut in the bridge at the correct depth so that the sample strings,when sitting in the slots would give the correct downbearing readings along the plate.It had to be taken in to account that the piano was unstrung so wedges were placed between the plate and the soundboard to mimick to some degree the downward pressure of a fully strung piano.I did make notes of the bearings on the fully strung piano,and also after the strings were removed and these measurements helped in getting a bearing that would be within the tollerances.Final adjustments (if necessary) can be made when the piano is re strung by adjusting the adjustable perimeter bolts.Before de stringing the downbearing averaged 1.5 degrees from the bass rising to 2.5 degrees in the treble.
Then it was a case of planing down the bridges to the bottom of the slots.
A jig was made to which a router could route the notches.Routers are very unforgiving so a lot of patience ensued in getting it to route the notches as perfect as possible.This work is usually done with a very sharp hand chisel but a think a router gives a much cleaner and uniformed job.
Next will be driving the bridge pins in and the bridge work will then be completed.Work will then start on the pinblock replacement.
To be Continued.........
If you have any questions or just plainly interested,we would be happy to receive your comments.

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