Varnish--Hard finish vs Soft finish

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: January 11, 2002 7:19 PM
Subject: Varnish--Hard finish vs Soft finish


> Another
> aspect, that I find in my preferences, is that the sound of pianos with
> lacquered boards, really offends my ear; whereas those with a Varnish
finish
> pleases my ear.

Joe,

I looked into this while at Baldwin and could find no difference in tone
performance among the various common finishes. As I recall, we tried sprayed
lacquer, sprayed conversion varnish, sprayed polyurethane, brushed shellac,
brushed varnish, brushed varnish over shellac, brushed lacquer (Deft) and no
finish at all. In all cases (except, of course, those soundboards with no
finish at all) the finishes were applied in accordance with the
manufacturers instructions and were applied as thin as practical. In other
words, with a minimum amount of finish applied. Usually (if memory serves)
that meant one coat lightly sanded followed by one or two more finish coats.

There were no audible or measurable differences among them that could be
attributed to the finish. By that I mean when two pianos with differences in
the soundboard finish exhibited variations in tone, switching the actions
also switched the variations in tone. In a couple of cases pianos were
excused from the tests because of excessive variations in string downforce
but there were still enough samples to get acceptable results.

I can't explain the differences you are hearing from these various pianos,
but I'd look beneath the finish for their cause. Except in the situation
you're describing in this post--I would guess the thickness of the material
is the culprit. Polyester is a relatively stiff and massive finish and is
usually applied fairly thick, exactly the opposite of the characteristics
you would want on a piano soundboard. (I did not try polyester--I could not
think of any good reason why anyone would actually want to use polyester as
a soundboard finish and, besides, we had no way of properly applying it.)

Del