> I work on several pre-modern pianos and the boards still sound quite > alive as well. However, it would seem that the soundboard performance > requirements for very low tension scales, as these all are, would be > somewhat different from those of more modern instruments. I assume that > would have manifested itself not only in the crowning procedures but the > ability of the panel to expand and contract without undue compression > stress. Comments? > > David Love From my limited experience with pre-modern pianos, this looks to be a reasonable assessment. What would pass as a categorically functional soundboard in an early instrument would most likely fail to meet even minimal functionality standards for a modern instrument, which makes a heads up comparison utterly meaningless. That was then, and this is now. The rules have changed, so the scoring criteria must necessarily follow suit. Low expectations, met by low material stresses in the assembly, should be more realistically expected to meet the resulting performance criteria over a long period of time than high expectations, with higher performance criteria, hopefully met by high material stresses in a similar assembly. This, I think, should be a pretty obvious starting point. Ron N
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