Soundboards

[Dan Squire]

      A  friend of mine has an old concert grand.  The piano is in excellent
condition, the bearing is good, the crown is good,  the whole piano is good.
There was only one little problem, this piano has very little volume in the
midrange and even less in the treble.  When I looked at the underside of the
soundboard I noticed that the soundboard ribs had no taper at the ends.  I
tried to woo the piano into submission by chanting equations at the
soundboard.  I then brought my computer in and showed it the simulations I
generated of a vibrating membrane,  the piano still had the same problems.
I looked over at my friend and for some reason the poor man was in tears, I
couldn't imagine why.  I was defeated.
      Has anybody had problems with untapered ribs?  Has anybody tried to taper
the ribs while the board was still in the piano?  If so, did it help?  Was
it more trouble than it was worth?  Has anybody ever replaced one of these
boards?  If so, did you taper the ribs?  What affect did it have?  Did it
make enough of a difference to validate the effort?

Dan Squire
University of Houston

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality they are not certain, and
as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
                                          - Albert Einstein