>I'm surprised at you, Ron. Surely you've checked keybed crown in each of >those S&S pianos you've put new soundboards in. Haven't you? You haven't! >Why shame, shame, shame. How do you know the degradation you've been blaming >on the soundboard wasn't really the fault of the collapsed keybed? Oh but I have, at least indirectly. I have without fail pounded every single crowned keybed that has ever passed across my threshold with my fist and each and every one has emitted an appropriate "dunk" sound indicating to me that the keybed was entirely and adequately functional regardless of the presence or absence of such an arbitrary standard as measurable crown. Performance under action load is, after all, what really counts here. I hear that some techs insist that if a piano in need of being rebuilt, the keybed is undoubtedly shot too and must also be replaced. I have not found this to be the case, and attitudes such as this disturb me greatly. The keybed is the soul of the instrument, and they not only don't deteriorate, but actually get better with age, like the keybeds in violins. Rare indeed is the piano in which the keybed is not at least as good as new, regardless of age, and it's due time that this myth of keybed aging and deterioration is put to rest for all time. I offer as evidence to this inarguable fact, my personal observation and lack of any body of documentation contrary to the effect that I know of no instance where the keybed of any piano has failed in it's primary application of keeping the action off of the floor. Consequently, I can only conclude that there are a number of unscrupulous practitioners of the piano rebuilding art who are perpetrating an outrageous fraud on their trusting and naive clientele by selling them wholly unnecessary and tragically destructive keybed replacements. I suppose that in some instances, it will become inescapably necessary to replace a keybed that has been maimed by an unfortunate accident or an inept attempt at repair of adjustment by an unqualified practitioner. In such instances, it is imperative that the oldest wood in the area be located, and procured by whatever means necessary to serve the higher good of restoring the defiled keybed to it's former and rightful glory. This won't, of course, be entirely possible, since the original designer, patent holder, and builder of the original keybed was possessed of a supernatural knowledge and understanding to which we can never hope to aspire. Ron N
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