rib Crown

[Frank Weston]

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> From: Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: rib Crown
> Date: Tuesday, January 06, 1998 11:42 AM
> My own general rule has been to consider everything significant until
proven otherwise. Then devise methods to test and prove
> one way or another. Even then, I occasionally (well, ok, sometimes not so
occasionally) I get pig-headed about the wrong
> things.

I do not mean to imply that soundboard crown is insignificant.  The point I
was trying to make is that no one seems to know precisely what radius is
best or which conic section is the one to use, and it they did know these
things, chances are they could not create out of wood precisely what they
can envision on paper.  Thus, no need to have a $4000 plotter to plot a
curve that could be done to the requisite degree of accuracy with a spruce
batten and a pencil.

And, of course, when we devise methods to test our theories, we must always
be careful that the results are not more influenced by the test method and
the observer than by the theory.  The objective judgment of the influence
of small differences in soundboard radius on piano tone is probably among
the most difficult of tricks to accomplish.  

Frank Weston