laminated ribs

[Ron Nossaman]

>   Ron
>   Forgive my 50 ish year old brain densification but are you saying here 
> that the stiffer you make the board the harder the requirements are for 
> the hammer.  

Hi Dale,
Yes, that's what I'm seeing.


>If so I'm confused.  I remember Del saying this type of 
> board can't tolerate hard hammers & that he was having troulbe at one 
> point with even the "softest" of hammers giving voicing difficulties. 

The first few I made were like that too, and I found that 
beefing up the ribs allowed a less soft hammer, and gave me 
some breathing room.


>   My contention has been that the stiffer the belly system the stiffer 
> the hammer requirements.

That's certainly what I'm seeing.


>   Perhaps it was your particular brand of english that got me twisted. Grin.
>    Dale

Maybe assumptions are being made that aren't the case. The 
boards I'm building, and the boards Del's building too (from 
his descriptions), aren't stiffer than new CC boards, except 
possibly in the treble. A new and well made CC board is 
overall stiffer ( has a higher spring rate under full bearing 
load) than the boards I'm building. But my boards have a 
spring rate higher than the failed, cumulative compression 
damaged CC boards with the killer octave problems.  Lacking 
significant panel compression, my boards don't have the steep 
progressive spring rate of both CC, and RC with panel support 
boards, like you're building.

Is that any better?

Ron N