Earthquake damage, was Re: National holiday non bootyearthquake rain day

[carl meyer]

carl meyer wrote:
> 
> A good magnifying  glass and light will tell you if the soundboard crack
> is new or old.  Old cracks have dirt in them that you can see.  Its the
> same principle of drying out a board before shimming.  With the glass
> you can dry the board until the crack grows longer.  Now the board is
> dryer that it has ever been.
> 
> Carl Meyer
> Santa Clara, Ca.
> 
> Ron Nossaman wrote:
> >
> > >  In 1989 we were six miles from the epicenter of a 8.2 earthquake.  We saw
> > >a lot of pianos that were still standing. The customers heaved sighs of
> > >relief that their pianos were ok.  Only problem was that many of them had
> > >_bad_ soundboard cracks which the customers couldn't see.
> > >  Diane
> >
> > This one's bothered me for years. We don't get many earthquakes here in
> > Kansas, but we have other forms of natural disasters, like movers.
> > Virtually every single time I've gotten a call on moving damage, whatever
> > it was, the customer has asked either "Is the soundboard ok?", or "Did they
> > crack the soundboard"? Now what I want to know is how, during moving or
> > earthquakes, a soundboard would crack unless it was directly contacted by
> > something and pushed through, or the rim or liner were destroyed? Sure, I
> > find cracks in soundboards after bad moves, but I see them after good moves
> > too. I see them in pianos that haven't been approached for any other reason
> > than to water the plants on the lid for the last twenty years, let alone
> > being subjected to dropping off a truck or being earthquaked. While I admit
> > I haven't inspected a piano that was damaged while being moved during an
> > earthquake, I still remain skeptical. I wonder how much in insurance claims
> > is paid yearly as a result of merely pointing at a soundboard crack that
> > has been there for a long time before the post disaster inspection brought
> > it to everyone's attention.
> >
> > Since this idea that soundboard cracks are the result of one single
> > incident seems to be so widely accepted among the public, I'd like to hear
> > some thoughts from the technical community. Yea, I know they are the result
> > of one single incident, but I'm leaving the manufacturer out of it this
> > time. What I want to know is - does anyone have any reason to think that a
> > normal-to-rough move, or an earthquake that leaves a piano standing, was
> > the cause of soundboard cracks discovered after the fact? If so, what's the
> > reasoning? I can see a jolt knocking loose old hide glue joints that could
> > have failed spontaneously at any time, but soundboard panel cracks? How is
> > that likely?
> >
> >
> > Ron N