Danny Moore wrote: > ... If the original was, say, 80 years old, we expected the rebuilt board to go about 20 or 1/4 of the original. Also at 1/4 the price of a new board. Note, we did this type of repair on instruments of "good" quality but lesser value. S&S, M&H, Bose, > stuff like that always got new boards. I really doubt that any compression-crowned soundboard is capable of lasting 80 years. Yes...yes...I know. Aunt Martha's 1917 Brambach still sounds just as good today as it did when it was new, but her piano is really the exception. Not the rule. Just because a soundboard is still installed in a piano after 80 years does not mean that it "lasted" 80 years. > Are all of the better modern instruments built with pre-crowned ribs now? I seem to recall that there is a debate about which type of construction is better. Without provoking this debate, which do you (and anyone on the list) find to be best? > > Danny Moore No. I would guess at least some of the "better modern instruments" are still being built with compression-crowned boards. Surely Steinway, and there is at least some empirical evidence that both Yamaha and Kawai at least occasionally install soundboards that are quite dry. (These boards are generally somewhat thicker than Steinways and consequently the results of compression damage are less likely to be visible. That doesn't mean it's not there.) Baldwin, at least while I was there, compromised with a moderately dry board, crowned ribs and crowned cauls. In my view, this is potentially a better process. In terms of which system is better, you have to define better. Acoustically, with proper design, both systems can be made to perform well. I think I have better control over the acoustics of the board by placing more of the string downforce load on the ribs rather than on a compressed (and over-stressed) soundboard panel. I can better control the mechanical impedance of the system to respond as I wish it to for the bass, tenor or treble. The jury is still out on the longevity of the rib-crowned system, but the evidence is that their useful life span (that is their musical life span) will be just as long as that of the compression crowned board, and probably longer. The design does not place nearly the destructive stress on the wood fiber of the soundboard panel. The bottom line is that the compression-crowned soundboard system has over a hundred years of development and tradition behind it. That's not going to change overnight, no matter what the evidence says. -- ddf
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