STEINWAY SALE: If you are an optimistic sort, I think you could say that the $100 million sale of Steinway is clear assurance that hard-nosed profit-oriented businessmen see a long and profitable future in the piano business. If you are a pessimistic type, you might say that the snob-appeal of the Steinway name, clearly one of the most prestigious brand names ever known, attracted "one more sucker," in spite of the realities of the long-term outlook. As for myself, I haven't a clue. SOUNDBOARD REPAIRS: The Wichita and KC PTG chapters have been poking a bit of fun ately at Samick for saying that their grands are now built with a "solid spruce soundboard stabilized by veneers on both sides. " (This was in the October 1994 Piano Technicians Journal, in an article on piano manufacturers that were represented at the Kansas City convention last July.) I've had to deal a bit lately with delaminating soundboards, and wonder who else has any experience in this area. I have been using soundboard buttons as clamping blocks in re-gluing the delaminations. Stock soundboard buttons are poor for clamping because of the fact that they are counter-sunk for a flat-head wood screw; if you tighten a flat-head wood screw too tight in a regular soundboard button, you can easily split it out. However, if you take a 3/8" Forstner bit and turn the counter-sink into a flat bottomed hole, you can use an oval-headed wood screw and tighten the screw as tight as you like without fear of breaking the button. And, for laminated soundboards, you can use a (modified) button on both sides of the board with a 1/8" or so bolt. If you use locking washers in both buttons (or maybe a locking washer at the head of the bolt and a lock nut on the other side), the assembly will "grab" and you can easily tighten the clamp down from just one side of the board with no need for an assistant on the other side. Kent Swafford
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