Laminated Versus Solid Sound BoardsRe: Soundboard Chemical Treatment

[Arnold]

On Mon, 19 Aug 1996, James E DeRocher wrote:

> Rob,
>
> My guess is that some salesperson who had a weak grasp of a sales feature
> related same to a customer who had even a lesser grasp.
> I know that laminated soundboards, such as Samick's, have proven to
> be 71% less responsive than traditional spruce plank soundboards to
> ambient humidity changes due primarily to the semipermeable moisture
> barrier afforded by the glue line under the top and bottom surface
> veneers.
>
> Jim
> tunerjim@juno.com
>

This post brings up an opinion that I have had for a while, and I wonder
if I am in the monority about it.  I know that laminated soundboards, the
first, I think, being the Storytone Soundboard, have been promoted as
being able to help the piano stay tuned better, for reasons such as
those stated in the
above post.  Also, sales people will tell you that a laminated board will
respond less to humidity because the grains are perpendicular and
therefor will not let expantion or contraction travel throughout the
board as easily, making it more stable.

But, my experiences seem to have been that laminated soundboard pianos
don't stay tuned any better or worse than solid soundboard pianos, there
are just too many other factors acting on the tuning stability, such as
how near it was in tune and how well it was  tuned (how much care was
used during the tuning  how well the pins were set), and the tightness of
the pins,the humidity environment and how hard and/or often the piano is
played,  etc.  By no means do I think that laminated soundboards are
worse at making the piano stay tuned,  I
think they are "just another way of doing things."  If they are so
wonderful,
why doesn't Steinway, whose pianos sell for so much that they could use
almost any construction technique they wanted, use them?   >  This stuff
in the above post about semi-permiable glue joints and 71% less likely to
get out of tune is nothing more than marketing (this is not meant as a
flame to the original poster, but to all those marketing types who make
that stuff up.)

Arnold Schmidt, Raleigh, NC