RIPPEN soundboards

[Clark]

Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
 
> We would encounter this notion from time to time when folks -- usually a
> piano technician or a piano salesperson -- would learn that the lower edge
> of our soundboard free-floated.  After exclaiming over how nice the bass on
> the piano sounded and that they had not heard anything quite that good in a
> piano of this size, they would go on to explain to me that I really
> shouldn't allow the lower edge of the soundboard to free-float like that.
> Soundboards really have to be supported around their entire parameter, you
> see, and if I would just tie the soundboard down in the normal fashion, it
> would surely sound 'better.'  Actually, we have a great deal of flexibility
> in soundboard design, if we're willing to explore them just a bit.  And
> shake off some of the ingrained ideas we've been taught, lo, these many
> years.

I've seen a few antique European uprights with only three sides of the
board fastened continuously to the case, with liner free or only locally
attached to the case, either at the top - sometimes curving away from
the block in the bass, or the bottom - sometimes curving away from the
base in the treble. I know of an unusual antique grand that has this,
too ("Oh, that's so the sound can come out"!!).


Clark