My own feeling is that replacing a soundboard that on visual inspection shows nothing unusual other than the lack of some expected look for crown is a waste. My own experience with these things leads me to imagine that if you were to replace the board the piano would still come back with little or no sustain. We've done it here at CCM many times. About 6 years ago we replaced a board on a '70s Steinway B. Everything else was also done for this piano (strings, block, all new action, etc.). We even changed the location of the knuckles on the new shanks we received from Steinway. The new board had plenty of crown. Our rebuilt piano was only slightly better. It still played like a truck and the sustain was terrible. It sounded like somebody had thrown a blanket on top of the strings. The piano was retired to a rehearsal room with great disappointment. We had another instrument that was dead sounding. The piano sat in this rehearsal room until last summer. Students would get excited when they discovered a B in an unlocked room that they could practice on. But gradually they too, came to the same conclusion and they no longer flocked to practice on it. So last summer, on a hunch, I decided to have it rebuilt a second time. "What's the harm", I told myself, "it's trash the way it is." My budget is such that I can make the decisions without consulting. So I decided to send it out. Only, I would do nothing to the board. In fact the only thing that was done was that the entire treble bridge was recapped, it was restrung, and the pin block was replaced. The hammers were only fitted and filed. There was some adjustment to the let off and key dip. The piano no sits in a Piano Teaching studio next to a younger B (1983). The rebuilt B is the hands down winner in this studio. My gut feeling is that tone in pianos die because over time the strings are coupled more strongly. They dig into the wood and pins and they learn how to become one with the bridge and soundboard system thereby transferring their energy too quickly into the system. In new pianos the degree of coupling is much less so that sustain is much better. I believe that this is why Concert & Artists divisions of the major piano manufacturers are forced to retire their concert instruments after a period of five or so years. These pianos are still quite good. But they begin to loss that lustre and sustain that is so enviable. **************************************************************************** Michael J. Wathen Phone: 513-556-9565 Piano Technician Fax: 513-556-3399 College-Consevatory of Music Email: Michael.Wathen@UC.Edu University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH 45221-0096 http://www.uc.edu/~wathenmj
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC