Dear List,
I have a 110 -year-old B with a 35 year old board (NY: Camilleiri?
A&C?), with whose voicing I've hit the "wall". This is the main
concert piano for one of my summer music programs, and the piano
lives over the winter in the uninsulated concert shed. I believe
(based on 8 years of taking care of this piano) that I've hit on the
best musical use of the resonance in that board, but still the 5th
and 6th octaves never balance satisfactorily with the rest of the
piano. (35 y.o. board & block, 15 y.o. stringing, and 6 years ago, I
put new action parts - NY hammers. This summer I did sell them
Pianotek's turnbuckle brace.)
Underneath, the crown has collapsed. I've got an M-shaped board: the
bridge has pressed a downwards ridge into the soundboard, all along
the treble bridge, except when the bass bridge stands behind it
(between ribs #2-5 counting from the bass corner). Here the long
bridge has crown under it, and it's the bass bridge which furrows the
board. The board BTW, doesn't show compression ridges.
On top, there's respectable downbearing *and* front bearing
throughout (the only exception to front bearing is at the mid-treble
break where front bearing disappears, but downbearing is still
respectable.
Having listened to some fine new factory fresh Bs at Marlboro this
summer, this board's resonance needs to be better. Based on the crown
readings, I'd tend to say that we shouldn't expect anything better
from this board.
That judgement call aside, it's still interesting that things should
look so good from the top side. I know when a crown has reversed and
bridges have rolled that such a board can give false positives on
downbearing. But I would expect that to be accompanied by badly
negative front bearing. Which is not the case here.
Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.
"Trust me, you've got all the equipment, You just need to read the manual"
...........Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde"
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