Soundboards

[Richard Moody]

The motion of a sound board is up and down. No movement no sound.  A
smaller sound board moves a smaller amount of air.  A larger sound
board moves a larger amount of air.  Among other things the more air
moved, the larger the sound.  
	Fortunately or unfortunatly semantics (or spelling) has nothing to
do with the reality of sound boards. .

Rickard Mody 
		...isn't it good Norwegian Wood.    Beatles

----------
> From: Michael Wathen <Michael.Wathen@UC.Edu>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Soundboards
> Date: Wednesday, June 04, 1997 12:50 PM
> 
> Here is a question that has bothered me for a long time.  I have no
answer
> but I am interested in what anyone might have to say about it.
> 
> It is generally believed that the bigger the piano the bigger and
better the
> sound. Similarly, the larger the soundboard surface the more
capability for
> better and bigger sound.
> 
> To my way of reasoning that can't be so.  Assume that a piano
hammer can
> give the same amount to energy to a string whether the piano is a
petite
> grand or a Imperial.
> We all are clear now that the soundboard is not an amplifier.  That
means we
> have the same amount of potential energy in both size grands.  It
would seem
> that the piano with the bigger sound would use up all this
potential energy
> much quicker than the piano with the little sound.  This would mean
that the
> smaller piano would have much better sustain and the larger piano
would
> decay too quickly.  So why should a concert grand sound better?
>  
>
**********************************************************************
******	
> 
> Michael J. Wathen			Phone:	513-556-9565
> Piano Technician			Fax:	513-556-3399
> College-Consevatory of Music		Email:  Michael.Wathen@UC.Edu	
> University of Cincinnati
> Cincinnati, OH 45221-0096
> 
> http://www.uc.edu/~wathenmj				
> 
>