Unlike old wood, old topics do tend to ossify. All things being equal, give me a new piece of wood. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of andré oorebeek Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 9:56 AM To: Pianotech List Subject: Re: The finite life of wood grain Hi all, As Richard Brekne mentioned before, this is an old topic. We have talked about it extensively. I hope you all will forgive me, but again I ask you this question : Would you rather have an old Steinway grand, or a new one? My answer is : Please, give me a new one. Why? Because the tone is definitely more vibrant, flexible and lively than the tone of an old Steinway, as charming as it can be. Usually, the misery starts within a few years, i.e. the appearance of 'difficult spots', false beats etc. That's the beauty of a brand new instrument.. it sounds strong, healthy and young, with a very elastic/resilient tone. Has nothing to do with voicing... it is da wood .... Flame suit? or what? friendly greetings from André Oorebeek Antoni van Leeuwenhoekweg 15 1401 VW, Bussum the Netherlands tel : +31 35 6975840 gsm : +31 652 388008 "where Music is, no harm can be" On Oct 22, 2008, at 10:54 AM, erwinspiano at aol.com wrote: Well I guess I have a limited opinion about the meaning of life. Whatever. But/Or perhaps from a practical business related view & not from a hobby horse one it just isn't as economical to do recrowning or reuse old wood on a new rib set for many reasons and & it can not be used in a compression crowned belly as most were originally with confidence. I guess the intended usage & tonal expectation would be determined by you anticipated outcome. I've actually spoke with a tech in Chicago that put in about 25 full length shims in an all dried out board to gain some new crown. He did, But he didn't like it doing it, as he was concerned about longevity & his reputation. Rightly so. It's still compression crowning old wood. Respectfully I've yet to hear any of you proponents of this idea actually do it, make money at it or provide one testimonial from a known rebuilder who has. SO,By the way I have actually have done this. A new rib set on an old upright panel. The only reason it worked was becasue the piano was literally falling apart & the ribs & soundboard virtually fell out of the piano. Bridge came off. All the useual obstacles fell out of the way. Piano sounds ok. Not stellar. Client likes it and it was an appropriate repair under the circumstances. In this case...I didn't loose money Poor horse Dale Old wood that is in good shape can of course be re-used in SB construction in a variety of ways and is in fact done so by competent folks around the globe all the time. Those that deny this either have a very narrow idea of what good sound is all about or some other such limiting opinion about the meaning of life or some such thing :) Cheers RicB We've been through this again and again and again on this list, and my opinion ( which will be ridiculed by some here, but I have no interest in further defending ) is that old wood that has been in decent ( reasonably clean, dry ) environments is acoustically superior. ( As in: "Rich" and "Warm" sounding.) But this superior resonance can not be expressed, when the crown has imploded. I'm doing my first full soundboard recrowning according to a new method ( not yet discussed here ) and may report the results. Euphonious Thumpe _____ McCain or Obama? Stay updated on coverage of the Presidential race while you browse - Download <http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1211139166x1200680084/aol?redir=htt p://toolbar.aol.com/elections/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000002> Now! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081022/8245193b/attachment-0001.html
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