my own Soundboard

[Ron Overs]

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>Ron,
>     thank you for your accommodation of my request. I received the 
>pictures and it was exactly what i was looking for. I may not make 
>them immediately and favor Ron N. approach until I get more time and 
>a feeling for just how much I may be leaning into this part of the 
>business. I love shop work but the bread and butter has always been 
>tunings.

I read Ron N's excellent post in which he mentioned the F clamps he 
uses. They sound like a better solution for your immediate needs.

>     I thought that tongue and groove might be a good idea long 
>before I heard about it here. Lately I've been day dreaming about 
>finger joints. Any feelings on how that might work in a soundboard 
>situation? It seems that a finger joint would offer more surface 
>area than a tongue and groove.

Finger joints are fine, but there's no real benefit in having such a 
strong joint since we are only dealing with spruce. The real benefit 
of the tongue and groove is the improved alignment of the boards when 
gluing up the panel - which allows for the boards to be sawn closer 
to the finished size. The smaller the tongue and groove the better, 
since less wood will be wasted when machining the joining surfaces. 
The total loss for each joint will be double the tongue size.

>  Call me a ponderer.

Some of us ponder, then some of those carry through that-upon-which 
they've pondered, then the hind-sight thing sets in. Its a good idea 
to ponder and plan long and hard before you take the plunge, but not 
for too long or you'll get put in a box first.


>     I would love to here from you any tips, ideas, or pitfalls to be 
>aware of as I begin to prepare for this job. If you have an idea of 
>a supplier for Sitka or opinions about other woods I would love to 
>hear that too!

Uncle Ron N did a very good job in his post.

If you look again at the three gluers image 
(http://www.overspianos.com.au/3glrs.html), you will see that there 
is a plywood piece cutout to match to inner rim/sound-board-panel 
contact area (it also has a bass-corner-section to cover the sound 
board cutoff, and with a special deeper throat clamp made for it). 
This continuous plywood piece ensures that the clamping pressure is 
distributed evenly to the sound board panel. This piece is made from 
an 8' x 4' x 18mm thick plywood sheet with the cutoff back-right 
corner scarf jointed to the right hand side (to cover the entire 
board with a single sheet). This idea came to me directly from uncle 
Ron N before I glued in no. 003 sound board. We undercut the 
outer-lower edge around the perimeter to prevent any excess 
glue-squeeze-out from gluing the former to the sound board. This 
single piece device allows for clamping up much faster than using 
individual blocks for each clamp. Regarding solid verses laminated 
panels, I had intended to build the next two pianos (004 and 005) 
with one solid and one laminated panel for an A-B comparison. But 
we're so satisfied with the results of no. 003 that I am beginning to 
wonder if there is any point in using a solid panel again. The 
laminated panel has better resistance to checking and it seems to 
slightly improve tuning stability.

>though I was not fortunate enough to hear your piano this past 
>convention I hope to this time around in Chicago. I certainly 
>respect your opinion and value your input to "the list".

Thanks Greg but I can't see myself getting to Chicago this year 
unless some miracle happens. I am currently designing three new 
grands, a 185, 230 and a 280 (top elevations can be seen together one 
behind the other at http://overspianos.com.au/cases.html). We are 
building just two more pianos based on the undrilled Samick 225 
plate. These pianos will be very similar to no. 003 (the Reno exhibit 
piano), but with a larger bass corner cut-off. We've had such a big 
(read expensive) couple of years developing these instruments that 
I'm going to have sit tight for a bit. However, I am looking forward 
to returning to the US as soon as we get another serious new product 
up and running - either the 230 or 280.

>     The three gluers thing was cute! How is your efforts going in 
>getting your piano used at the concert hall? Is this a battle with 
>Steinway or the hall?

Recently we had a battle with certain folks in a management capacity 
who wanted the new Stuart piano to be used for all concerts in a 
certain chamber music recital series for the Sydney Festival - 
regardless of the wishes of the pianist. However the pianist (for one 
of the four concerts) requested our no. 003. Miraculously after some 
arm twisting we got permission to supply it for David Bollard's Jan 
20 concert. At this time, since we only manufacture a 225 cm grand 
piano, we will be at a natural disadvantage over other makers who 
have a full concert piano. Regardless of how good or bad our piano 
may sound, it is visually inferior from a length perspective.

>The longer I'm in this business the less respect I seem to have for 
>Steinway. They do some things well but the most successful thing 
>they do is their marketing. well, this is nothing new to serious 
>technicians is it?

Yes they're great marketers but innovation has been almost completely 
non existent for over a hundred years. This time our problem was not 
with Steinway (wasn't always thus), but again it was an entrenched 
manufacturer - in this case very recently entrenched.

Best regards,

Ron O.
-- 
                  OVERS PIANOS
        Grand Piano Manufacturers
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Web:    http://www.overspianos.com.au
Email:  mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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