Hi William I'm just trying to keep separate issues separate. The fact is that the soundboard issue is obviously in dispute. That has nothing to do with my personal view... its just a summation of what one hears out there in the world. Even these past few posts from the various participants reveals that. Probably has a lot more to do with subjective opinion and to some lesser degree even prejudice then anything else. I say that completely dispassionately. The fact is many companies have endeavored greatly to imitate Steinway in every fashion and by now it is no secret to the other major players in the game how Steinway makes their soundboards. I simply can not resolve in my mind why then it is only the Steinway CC board that has a self destruct mechanism that gives rise to the Killer octave syndrome and in general the woes of the piano world. Seriously. Now if somebody can explain why this is so... I'll be more then eager and willing to listen. As for the prep work. Thats something that can be worked with beyond factory walls. And there are positive avenues to that problem that are open to those who wish to take them. And again.. dispassionately.... those who have other agendas / motivations / what-have-yous can and will take what avenues they wish. I'm just trying as best I can to sort out facts from other stuff and try to put things catagories that are easy to deal with. You put the question "Do you think that the fact that their boards are not dried as much could contribute to problems?" I would point out (again with absolutely no passion involved) that the main criticism with the CC Steinway board is that they force such compression levels into the board that the things basically collapse. Since drying out a board even further before ribbing introduces even more compression then otherwise... I am not sure I understand your question. Cheers RicB Ric, Get over it. I don't think we're all saying that only S&S boards are [bad] or whatever. I think the main point here remains that a company that claims to be the best in the world, should be producing a top quality product. Their soundboards are not. Neither are their actions, for that matter. So if it confuses the issue for you to think that S&S pianos have problems with soundboards in addition to other problems, I think that is for you to reconcile, not the list. Interesting, though that you point out: "Now why only Steinways... who are a bit more moderate then some in how much they dry out their panels then some to begin with....." Do you think that the fact that their boards are not dried as much could contribute to problems? Best, William R. Monroe
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC