The finite life of wood grain

[Farrell]

Picky, picky. Sure sounds good though. Come to think of it, I do think I've 
heard a few pianos that sounded like there was some ossification going on.

The part that got me was the formation of amber. My geology background 
suggests to me that even Christifori's first piano isn't old enough to have 
a whole lot of amber forming in the soundboard.......

And wood cells becoming more vacuous? So, the density of the wood changes 
substantially? Hmmmm....

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
> 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
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>>     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
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