Laminated Soundboard Blues

[Horace Greeley]

Hi, Ron, et al,

Quoting Ron Nossaman <rnossaman@cox.net>:

>
> >>Aren't Ron Overs' pianos made with a laminated soundboard?  Perhaps I
> am
> >>wrong but I thought that was the case.   I'd have to say from my
> limited
> >>exposure to his piano in Reno, the sound was not in the least
> >>compromised.
> >>
> >>David Love
> >>davidlovepianos@comcast.net
> >
> >Yes David, all but one of our pianos have laminated soundboards. The
> piano
> >at Reno had a laminated panel. Thanks for coming to the laminated
> panel's
> >defence. The idea is being rejected simply on the basis of low end
> trashy
> >pianos using low end trashy non-spruce laminated panels.
>
> While I'm not altogether convinced they necessarily need be made of
> spruce,
> it's obvious that laminated panels are typically pre-judged as being
> inferior, most often by those who have no practical experience in
> soundboard design and fabrication.

In this case, going back to Terry's first post, we find this URL:

http://www.calgarysun.com/cgi-bin/niveau2.cgi?s=generic&p=9666.html&a=1

Which, with a little research, leads one to:

http://www.irenebesse.com/

At which site we quickly discover that there is reason for a fair amount of
pre-judgement to be going on.  And, we can also find the following
interesting comment:

"All pianos are tuned prior to delivery. On-site tuning can be arranged at
your request. Full concert services also available."

Note that this is a Canadian site, so prices are in CDN, not US$.

> >When is some sanity going to come to this matter?
>
> This is rhetorical, right?

Most likely.

> >I believe the concept warrants further serious consideration. But I'll
> no
> >doubt be accused by some of pushing my own barrow.
>
> It surely does, and you likely will.

One hopes that, with some more exposure to well-done laminated boards, the
opposition would be shown for what it is...marketing blather.  There was a
time, of course, when this might not have been true; however, the last bit
of dust-up in Europe a few decades back meant things like most of the
remaining best quality spruce going into glider making instead of pianos.

> >If one wants to be kept in ignorance, by all means keep listening to the
> >uninformed chatter of salespeople, or the chatter of those who chose a
> >word/email processor as his/her primary research tool.
>
> How does that go? It's not what is said, but who says it, and the way it
> is
> said that counts? I must disagree. The information is what counts, and
> that
> takes some internal processing to validate and assimilate.

And, sadly, there has not been sufficient numbers of quality instruments
with laminated boards for the "average" person (or, technician, for that
matter) to get anything more real than the marketing hype.

> >The problem of our age is sorting the worthwhile information from the
> >oceans of BS and chaff.
> >
> >Ron O.
>
> Internal processing, and application of the 99% rule.
>
> Ron N

Indeed.

Horace