Laminated Soundboard Blues

[Horace Greeley]

Hi, Ron,

Quoting Ron Nossaman <rnossaman@cox.net>:

>
> > > 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.
>
> Hi Horace,
> We do? I'm not seeing it. What am I missing?

Their primary brands.

> >One hopes that, with some more exposure to well-done laminated boards,
> the
> >opposition would be shown for what it is...marketing blather.
>
> Yes, one continues to hope.
>
>
> >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.
>
> The problems I've seen with laminated boards aren't the result of not
> having top grade spruce, in my opinion, but rather trying to build a
> soundboard assembly without awareness or accommodation of the differences
> between solid spruce and laminated whatever panels. I see no reason that
> a
> well functioning soundboard couldn't be made using the old Story & Clark
> Incomparable Storytone Mahogany Plywood crating stock, with a little
> awareness and a few necessary design changes.

Yes - absolutely.

> >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.
>
> True, and it still remains that too often, the piano will be judged not
> by
> how it actually sounds and performs, but by what the average person (and
> most certainly the tech) "knows" to be an inferior construction. Opinions
> tend to change with revelations of anything different than we think we
> know, regardless of what we hear for ourselves. Getting past that seems
> to be the biggest problem.

Exactly.

Best.

Horace