Sound waves(a neat experiment)

[John Delacour]

At 5:31 PM -0500 1/19/02, Erwinspiano@AOL.COM wrote:

>JD--This may be considered just as vague as Ron Os answer conerning 
>sitka spruce but here is what I know. Having used many different 
>species of spruce I must confess that I have enjoyed the sounds od 
>Sitka spruce the most. The clarity and WOW what sustain and power. 
>Of the many american Steinways I've heard I really like the ones 
>from the late 60s and 70s  because of there amazing sustain 
>qualitys. The actions were trash then but the guys were making 
>excellent boards.
>   I  sold a stwy B from 1971 to a concert pianist. She had looked 
>all over the S.F. bay area for Bs and ended up with this one. She 
>said nothing Ishe played even came close to this one. Apparently 
>she'd been looking for some time. The college has some Ls from  the 
>same era with the same sound.
>       I put a sitka board in stwy A last year and the sustain in the 
>killer octave ( and every where) was forever. I've never heard one 
>better.
>    Please I'm not tootin my own horn but I do get exited when I hear 
>sound like that.

Oh, I wasn't meaning to run down sitka spruce and it's had a good 
reputation in America for over a century.  I have no reason to think 
a board of Sitka spruce is at all inferior to one of average good 
European wood -- especially as the sources of this have been so wide 
and changeable over the years.

>    On another subject I have heard some German O' only a couple of 
>years old that were to die for. Oh my oh my.  They sounded so 
>refined and bigger than there physical size belied.
>    Are they using the same magic lumber you described earlier and 
>are they curing wood differently Or what  Please tell  enlighten me.

Were they modern Os?  I don't know where Hamburg get their wood from 
nowadays.  The forests in north-east Italy that I'm talking about, 
where Fazioli gets his soundboard wood from do seem to be a good 
source.  I've heard stories that Stadivari et al. got their wood from 
the same zone, but it was probably in some Fazioli hype.  However the 
mineral content in the soil might really play a part in producing a 
better-behaved wood, especially by increasing the acoustic velocity 
across the grain.  Silicates of sodium or potassium grown into the 
stucture of the wood, especially the summer growth, would almost 
certainly have a beneficial effect.  I hope this year to visit these 
forests, since they're only a few hours' drive from my place in 
Italy, and find out the details direct from the yards.

Whatever the intrinsic quality of the fir or spruce, the main factor 
in tone production is bound to be the way the board is constructed 
and bellied -- my recent researches have made it even clearer to me 
how critical it is to arrange the deals appropriately, use 
well-quartered stuff etc.

JD

PS. The URI for the Italian yards is on my other machine.  I'll post it later.