This post is for soundboard repair newbies and wannabies. It may not be of interest to experienced rebuilders, unless of course I am doing something dumb and you want a good laugh. ;-) (kinda kidding) I am routing out cracks in an old soundboard and gluing the soundboard back to loose ribs. In trying to figure out how to clamp board to ribs, I realized any overhead pressure (go bars or the like) would be less than optimal at locations where there was no structural beam under the soundboard for blocking. I have seen several tips/articles in the Journal regarding little soundboard/rib boat clamps - the ones with a small piece of pinblock, a tuning pin, and a wire that wraps around the rib and draws it to the topside pinblock piece. I made six of them. Wohah! How cool. They work great. Real easy to use, fast, and super holding power - and if you don't glue them to the soundboard (ha, ha, fooled ya, I did not do that - yet), they remove very easily. Maybe everyone already has and uses these. Maybe there is a better way. Seems to work great to me. I took a bunch of pictures of the boats in use, if anyone wants to pursue this method. Send me a note and I will email you pictures & notes. It also employs a real easy-to-do secure termination for the non-tuning pin end of the wire. Terry Farrell Piano Tuning & Service Tampa, Florida mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
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