Soundboard repair question

[Fenton Murray]

Dang, can you imagine what it's
> like to work at a job where you might learn it all and get bored?
I can't imagine that. I've done 4 new boards in 4 years and I barely have a 
grasp on all the machining and woodworking procedures involved, let alone 
some since of design and cause and effect. So, I'm no expert. But, I'm 
always learning. I did a board in an upright a couple years ago and talked 
to Ron N. about it afterwards. I told him I dried it down to 5.5 and gave 
him the numbers on my RC&S rib layout. Anyway, he says "how did it sound?". 
Kind of tight, I says. "That's because you dried it down to far". Boy, all 
of a sudden I heard it, I heard what I did to that piano come out of that 
piano. You know there's 2 ways of doing something, the right way, and then 
there's learning something. Hard to say which is better. You can hear the 
health of the SB system, to tight, to much load, flat, woody killer octave, 
loose ribs, bad terminations (bridge), glue joints that have gone through 
too many cycles, especially in old uprights.  It's all there if you listen. 
While cracks don't really hurt the tone or power of the soundboard system, I 
think if there's a few of them it's telling you something, like a board that 
has gone through a lot of severe cycles. Since, I not a big fan of shimming, 
if there a lot of cracks I'm going to be thinking new board from now on. The 
power and ability to produce huge triple forte 21 note chords with no 
distortion or lack of clarity is convincing to me anyway that it's worth 
doing. OK, enough out of me.
Fenton
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Annie Grieshop" <annie at allthingspiano.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 7:08 PM
Subject: RE: Soundboard repair question


> >And take the super glue away from the professor.
>
> I made him swear that he wouldn't experiment with that piano, although he
> was obviously ready to give it a whirl.  Come to think of it, I suspect 
> none
> of that bunch has any idea what those pianos are worth.  Perhaps that 
> would
> help motivate them to spend the $$ for D-C units.
>
> Thanks for your comments, Fenton, and I do apologize to everybody for
> whatever I've missed in the recent soundboard discussions.  Sometimes
> information doesn't really sink in until you have some personal interest 
> in
> it.  Or maybe I'm particularly dense this winter. <g>
>
> But I certainly do appreciate all this information you've given in 
> response
> to my question.  There's no way they're going to rebuild either of those
> pianos, so my main concern right now is to stabilize them and minimize any
> further damage.  The B had some pretty loose pins in the middle, which
> worried me -- but, oh goodness, was it nice to play!  I offered to keep 
> take
> care of the D-C units for them (keep them filled, etc.), as long as I can
> come in a play that piano.  It's on my way to nearly anywhere else, so it
> certainly wouldn't be a hardship. <g>
>
> Since I've been doing a LOT of regulation work on various verticals
> recently, I'm doing a lot of it by "feel" now, rather than relying on
> measurements.  And my work is greatly improved, with more appropriate
> adjustments and a more consistent product.  Now on to the grands!
>
> But it's challenging (and daunting) to realize that many, if not all of 
> the
> "systems" in a piano (and the instrument as a whole)really require that 
> kind
> of intuitive and holistic comprehension.  Dang, can you imagine what it's
> like to work at a job where you might learn it all and get bored?
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Annie
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Fenton Murray [mailto:fmurray at cruzio.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 3:53 PM
>> To: Pianotech List
>> Subject: Re: Soundboard repair question
>>
>> Annie,
>> What really matters is the sound of the piano before you tear it down. Do
>> you like it, then you might want to keep the board. There could
>> certainly be other things beside the SB that could degrade the tone of 
>> the
> piano,
>> hammers, strings, terminations, bearing on the board. All that has to be
>> considered. A SB not capable of holding up to a re-stringing and future
>> decades of service will show it's age and fraility in different
>> ways. Some of these are simply the health of the wood, think of old brown
> brittle
>> action parts, allthough spruce, especially sitka, seems to be incredibly
>> resillient, IMO. There is a mechanical design to the Soundboard,
>> Rib, Bridge system which has been discussed at length here. A break down
> of
>> that system, as in loss of crown and the ability to support the load of
> the
>> strings, is a sign of a dead system. A string check underneath will show
> crown,
>> here again it's only part of the story, some great sounding old Steinways
>> out here on the West Coast show hardly anything under load yet sound
> great.
>> Your cracks are just cosmetic, not that they shouldn't be repaired during
> a
>> restring, I just wouldn't consider tearing down the piano for that one
>> repair. And take the supper glue away from the professor.
>> Fenton
>>
>>
>
>
>