At 11:42 PM -0500 12/4/01, Stephen Birkett wrote: >That's really when this whole nonsense started out. I'm convinced it was a >marketing ploy. "Our soundboards have more rings than your soundbaord. >Our soundboards are purer than your soundboards." Peeing up the wall in >the fierce competition of the time. Once the "rule" was established that >soundbaord "had to be of this particular appearance", and further >justified by pseudo-scientific doubel-speak, it became the defacto norm, >so everyone had to do it if they wanted to sell pianos. Selling point (as they would have said) or no, what a selling point! I would use it -- I _do_ use it. I used it the other day to diminish a 1970s Hamburg Steinway. When the customer knows that the Stradivari and the Amati enchant through the quality of the magic wood and that incredible secret varnish that goes "right through the wood" and when she (or he) knows that the soundboard is the SOUL of the piano and that that little compression mark spells death, I'd say that a bit of money spent on quartered stock will not be wasted. Besides, good stock without shakes, with regular annual rings, given a deep golden finish, simply declares quality and the care of the maker, and reflects on the quality of the whole. It's all very well knowing that an orange box will do the trick better with a bit of clever jack-plane work and a good coat of two-pack, but try telling that to Madame. JD
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