Pianotech

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!

Undercutting the bass bridge is a reasonable idea.  Especially on a small piano there's no reason to stiffen the board more than you have to.  The typical procedure is undercutting the low end of the bass bridge back to where the foot rests above the rib but not beyond it.  

Shortening the speaking length and increasing the backscale can have some benefits but probably has some costs as well forcing a larger diameter of the string itself. So I have mixed feelings on that one.  Certainly you will want minimal bearing on the bass bridge.

Del has researched and written extensively on cantilevered bridges and the filtering problems that occur there. Whether Steinway was aware of that or not (I doubt it) I ithink the cantilevered bridge was simply an effort to increase string length while keeping the bridge foot as far from the rim as possible.  I don't think grain orientation on the bridge construction matters that much.  Obviously, Steinway bridge roots vary from bass to long bridge with vertical laminations in the long bridge but not on the bass bridge.  

While I do think one should be mindful of making design changes on pianos for a variety of reasons, this might be a good piano to experiment on if you are so inclined.  Every time you build a board with your own ribscale even if it is ostensibly to just optimize what you believe might have been a faulty execution, you're making a design change of sorts.  How far can you go before it becomes a serious change that brings the original design into question people have to answer for themselves and that runs through every aspect of rebuilding from action leverage to choice of bass string scaling.   

Hello, I am going to reconstruct the bottom of the bass bridge on a 5'1" Schomacker baby I'm rebuilding. The original apron was damaged, and since I'd rather not have the apron anyway, I opted to remove it and reconstruct it. It's a straight bass bridge and I'll be moving forward slightly to shorten the speaking length and increase the back scale. Looking at the long bridge, it looks like a maple/mahogany laminate. There is a short tenor bridge which doesn't appear to be a capped laminate, but rather a solid piece of quarter sawn maple. It also has a hollow underneath (see photo), presumably to allow the soundboard to move more freely. I'm wondering if I should do something similar for the base of the bass bridge? I'm also wondering if I should have a laminate bass or solid one? Lastly, what grain orientation should I consider?

I'm open to experimenting, but thought I'd ask this group first. Thank you!