In a message dated 5/02/2000 4:35:54 AM, you wrote: <<Can somebody please put me out of my misery by explaining the secret that everybody else seems to understand but me, of why all other things being equal, construction of a grand with a hard maple rim creates a piano with a superior tone to one with a 'select hardwood' rim. Regards, John Woodrow>> John; The answer is it doesn't "create a piano with a *superior* tone", needfully. What it does do is create a piano with a 'more refelective' rim assembly due to the compactness of the wood fiber/cellular structure/closegrain/etc. This in turn allows more of the vibrations to be trapped in/reflected back into the soundboard/bridge assembly for transmission to the air rather than being absorbed into, and dissipated by, a "select hardwood" rim assembly. Overall "tone", with all other things being equal, is not "superior" with either type of construction. However that being said a denser wood used in the rim will give: 1. longer sustain 2. greater responsivenes in ranges ppp to fff 3. more volume 4. more projection (note 3 & 4 are not the same). This is not to say that one type of construction is superior but they difinitely offer different characteristics in different areas of performance. I have heard many excellent pianos with both types of construction and while some would have been much more sutied to a performance venue than would others have been, I don't think that one could say that this neccessiatates labeling one or the other as having a "superior" overall tone. All that having been said..............I would dearly love to hear a Yamaha C3 that had been constructed with a HARD maple rim!! :-) Jim Bryant (FL)
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