Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Baldwin 243 Bridge Repair






I am just finishing up an upright bass bridge cap replacement. The piano was laid on it's back, and the bottom board is removed. Next, the screws securing the bridge are removed from the back side of the piano. The bridge is carefully chiseled away from the soundboard to minimise damage to the sound board. Once removed, patterns are made and the old pins are removed. The cap can then be cut off with the bandsaw. The sawn surface is planed on the bridge body, and a new cap is constructed. I chose to use dilignet as my cap material on this project because of it's superior strength. After the new cap is glued to the original bridge body, it is ready for pin layout, hole drilling, and installing new pins. When reinstalling the completed bridge, I added 2 additional screws, making a total of 4. Fortunately, non were obstructed by a back post. When the glue is set, the strings are reinstalled, as well as a the case parts. The piano can then be tuned.

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