> > That's right. No crown, no bearing. At least no intentional bearing. > > Readings I took this summer appeared to be random slightly +-, but > > essentially zero bearing. > >But the soundboard is still made from solid spruce planks, not laminated >ones, right? That's right, but it was built flat in the first place. The presence or absence of crown doesn't directly determine the stiffness of the assembly. Crown in a soundboard serves to make the board stiffer as bearing is added to it. With the panel not dried down, and glued to flat ribs, there isn't enough compression in the panel with humidity changes to affect the crown meaningfully. The ribs are too few, and too small, with negligible panel compression and no string bearing, so the assembly is just not stiff enough. >If I understood well what a killer octave is, then it should mean that the >Stuart has little sustain too. Not necessarily. Short sustain is just one of the possible symptoms. I've heard plenty of killer octaves that weren't unusually short on sustain, yet fell apart badly in distortion above moderate volume levels. The bridge agraffe might well have something to do with the sustain as well. I haven't tried it, so I can't say for sure there. >Something occured to me which might explain some distortion which is audible >when playing forte: >Given the fact that the string is bearing on the edge on the agraffe (see >the attached picture), , being pressed down by the pin in the midle it is >possible that the string is lifted from its front bearing surface (on the >agraffe) by a forceful hammer blow. >Ron who had a chance to play this piano could tell us if my theory seems >plausible or not. > > > Calin Tantareanu At that counterbearing angle, I don't think it's physically possible to bounce the string off of the bearing bar at ANY attack level that doesn't break the string. That's not it. It's the soundboard assembly. Ron N
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