The finite life of wood grain

[William Monroe]

As I understand it, ossification is the formation of bone - I'd hazard that 
this is not the process taking place in aging soundboards.

William R. Monroe



>     Well, "good sound" is subjective-----I'll grant them that. But the 
> ossification process that's occurring in old wood ( as the resins progress 
> on the road to becoming amber--classified as a gemstone- and the cells 
> become more vacuous due to this and shrinkage of the resins, certainly 
> effects the tone in some way. Whether you like it ( as I do ) or not is a 
> matter of opinion, and no-one's opinion is better than another's.
>    They're just opinions.
>    I will say, though, that the increasing stiffness of old wood, and the 
> already-culminated ( for all practical purposes ) compression set lends 
> credence to the argument that a properly recrowned soundboard ( if it can 
> be effected ) is less likely to develop cracks, or fail again, in the 
> future.
>    And it saves some beautiful trees.
>
> Euphonious Thumpe