Steinway A1 Bridge Work

Recapping piano bridges is very exacting work. It is important that they are accurately duplicated, and that the wood joints are perfect. I use .030" Lexan to make patterns from the existing bridges. The first step is to remove the old bridge pins. This is done by gripping them with a Vise Grip and twisting and pulling upward until the pin surrenders it's place in the bridge. The Lexan can now be place on top of the bridges and indexed by drilling a hole through the Lexan and bridge body- all the way through. The using an awl, I indent the Lexan at every bridge pin, and finally, drill a hole through the Lexan into the vacant bridge pin holes. When this is completed, the caps are cut off on the band saw.

Next the bridge pin holes in the bridge body are fill with wood dowels. After the glue has dried, the tops of the bridge body is planed to just where all the old bridge cap is removed. Now we can lay out the new caps, by tracing the cut off caps. Care must be taken especially at the section joints for a tight fit. Lastly the caps are glued to the bridge body. I prefer Bolduc acoustic glue, as it is very heat resistant, and will not clog the drill bit when drilling the new pin hole. At this point, the bridge should be thicker than the the original, as when setting the bearing, we want to be able to remove material to obtain the desired bearing.