Richard Breckne wrote: One of the really interesting topics that come up in our discussions last nite was this buisness of aging in wood..... Richard, With all due respect to the very earnest and intense opinions that have been expressed previously here on the list as to the deterioration of soundboards over time I must say that I remain unconvinced that a long term improvement in the sound produced by many aged boards is out of the question, in the case, at least, of most high-quality American pianos. In fact my experience has been essentially to the contrary as to my own perception of the sound produced by the thousands of these pianos I have played, tuned, serviced and rebuilt, over the years: in spite of worn, hard hammers, deteriorated strings and other problems, many have what I would characterize as a more musical, emotional sound, with adequate power and ring time throughout the scale. A similiar improvement is also perceptible to me, in the same fashion, not always, but most of the time when the comparison is made between many older or newer violins. I have noticed, however, that there is a tendency for some of the pianos to have a slightly less ring time in the last two and a half octaves or so. This is no impediment to me, however, as to the musical use of the instrument, speaking from my own experience as a pianist who has practiced literally thousands of hours and performed in public, both formally and informally, on many occasions. I would also point out, speaking as a technician, that our general, overall concept of the sound obtainable from a piano is conditioned prinicipally from our exposure to the modern pianos built in the last hundred and twenty years or so in which the problems of ringtime, volume, and musical timber have been solved in a somewhat characterisic way. As we all know previous pianos were substantially different. Those differencies, however, may not have been altogether negative. Much of the great literature composed for pianos in the last two hundred or so years was composed with pianos in mind which exhibited a substantially different set of attributes of sound. These characteristics some would argue were inferior as to ringtime and other characteristics, particularly in the treble, in comparison to the modern piano - a point I would agree with only in a qualified manner. But I would certainly agree wholeheartedly that they were different greatly from more modern instruments. Notwithstanding these differences, a large corpus of music was composed, as I have said, with them in mind. This lends strength to the observation that the differences between, a data set if we had such, of sounds from a representative sampling of pianos from, say, 1800, and a set from more modern pianos would not be an impediment to the production and performance of great music. Having heard a number of what aim for and are purported to be faithful reconstructions, both in Europe and the US, I can say that I find these pianos do have a beautiful sound, perhaps superior as to beauty of timber, in spite of their shorter, harpsichord-like, ringtime in the treble, their transition problems and general lack of power. The point I am making is: as pianofortes have not been an impediment which has precluded the conceptualization and performance of great music then the older modern-class pianos insofar as they exhibit after aging some of these characterictics will neither be such an impediment. I do not however, believe that vast majority of well rebuilt modern pianos, at least those that have some crown remaining, and even some that do not, have these deficiencies to a signifacent degree. Having said this, although rare in my experience, I have seen some pianos in which my impression was that the soundboard would, of necessity, have to be replaced, in order to cure some particular deficiencies in the sound and these deficiencies are almost always in the treble area. Taking many of these modern pianos through my shop and rebuilding them by replacing actions, pinblocks, repairing, shimming, or epoxing the existing soundboards, recapping bridges, adjusting downbearing, etc.etc: I have not had in even one case a problem obtaining a beautifully singing, hi-quality, powerful sound as a result. Contrasting these instruments with similar ones in which the boards have been replaced, some of which I have assisted in the replacement of, or to new pianos, I am forced to confess, at least to my ear, they sound as a rule better. It is true that there may be slightly less power in an occasional instrument at a few places in the fifth to sixth octave but this is not substantial and can almost always be overcome by working the hammers and string lifting. The tradeoff for this is the tone is essentially better in a musical sense, at least to my ear and I note many others making the same observations. I think this is the experience of many rebuilders. Additionally, one can note the comments of customers, completely untutored as most of them are in any aspect of piano technology or acoustics: they spontaneously comment more favorably on the sound of many older unrebuilt pianos notwithstanding the evident technical deficiences that have accumulated over time. If one has the experience to factor out these deficiencies (harshness, short sustain, etc.) by attributing them to their respective sources and has experienced first hand what replacement of these parts or techniques will change in the overall sound then it is a relatively easy matter to judge the utility of further work My experience of these matters forces me to conclude that what at one time seemed to be a general consensus expressed in the Journal that a soundboard with any measurable crown was rebuildable and did not in and of itself require replacement is, in fact, the case. Along with this can be found many observations of the "beautiful, singing, tone" of these older pianos - and, in come cases, even where the board has flattened altogether. Whether a soundboard, enduring its own particular, unique ambient lifestyle, with its own unique, particular characteristics will be changed over time and thereby change the characteristics of sound radiating from it, is, I think, something few on this list would disagree with. The question is, holding constant numerous other factors, what are these changes and can they possibly be for the better. My experience and the experience at least as far as I can tell from many other technicians, musicians, and other people that I am in contact with, is that indeed that can and they do. Why this is, or can or cannot be, is another question entirely and nothing expressed heretofore on this list has been persuasive to me in this regard. This is not simply a matter of willfullness on my part but rather arises involuntarily from my experience with the instrument. Donning Flame Suit and acquiring fire extinguisher. Robin Hufford RPT
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