On Thu, 03 Jan 2002 18:20:50 Ron Nossaman wrote: >The soundboard has to have the string(s) as the spring (energy storage >device) and mass, or it won't sustain much at all. Not much ring time to an >unstrung soundboard. > >Ron N > Is that true, Ron? Have you tried it? If you were to put one string on (let's say in the low end of the scale) with no downbearing I'm sceptical about there being not much sustain. In the upper end of the scale I can believe it's true since I think that the string loading is stiffening up the board and changing the way it responds to higher frequency input. As a case in point I currently have a piano in the shop that I inherited from another technician which has 2 strings installed on it. The bridge has been recapped but not yet notched and pinned. A couple of pieces of rod have been laid on top of the bridge and the strings run over them (so that they're acting like frets). The sustain time of those strings is amazing. (My conjecture is that the 2 strings were installed specifically to demonstrate to a prospective customer the sustain time.) I think perhaps the soundboard itself is providing the spring and mass. Phil F -- Click here for your very own create-a-date adventure from MatchMaker Go to http://ecard.matchmaker.com/dating.html
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