At 8:32 am -0500 22/3/02, ANRPiano@AOL.COM wrote: | I must have missed something a while back. | | What is a floating soundboard? | | It seems to mentioned frequently in reference to the bass. The soundboard of a "standard" modern piano is a clamped plate, that is to say it is fixed to a more or less massive framing right round its perimeter. It was common practice in straight-strung grands of 19th century to release the soundboard for 12" to 14" at the tail end of the straight side in order to allow the lower frequency vibrations to develop more freely. Some people on this list are applying the same principle to overstrung grands, where the low end of bass bridge is positioned close to the heel of the piano a long way from the straight side. Bösendorfer's Vienna-action grands at the turn of the century had the soundboard "floating" right across the front, stiffened with a strip of maple. The only one of these I have owned was only 5'6" long and an amazingly powerful piano in spite of its small soundboard. It is interesting to observe experimentally the effects on the radiation of different frquencies of removing the clamping at different points round the perimeter. JD
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC