..stability issue..

[David Ilvedson, RPT]

We've talked about this before I think...I vote for a graphite
soundboard...would it work?

David I
-----Original Message-----
From: Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Monday, November 20, 2000 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: ..stability issue..


>I've been following this thread with some interest.  Of course, the
comments
>about the piano needing tuning -- at least a unison touch-up -- every
couple
>of weeks instead of every couple of months are correct.  Considering the
>humidity swings a bar/restaurant go through daily it is quite unrealistic
to
>expect a piano to stay in tune longer than that.
>
>Or is it?
>
>Humidity related tuning instability problems have been around since the
>birth of the piano.  Since this problem has been around so long, we now
have
>a pretty good idea of what causes these swings.  And, at least one partial
>solution, the Dampp-Chaser system.
>
>There is, of course, one more solution that would be even more effective:
>designing and installing laminated soundboards.
>
>Now, don't throw up your hands in despair and tell me about how lousy they
>sound -- I know better.  The traditional laminated soundboards sound lousy
>because they were either designed to sound lousy or they were not designed
>at all.  They were just kind of tossed at the piano with some vague hope
>that somehow they wouldn't sound too bad.  Others were deliberately
designed
>to sound crappy so that it would be easier to upgrade the cheapskate
>customer to a 'better' -- i.e., more expensive -- piano.  Yes, I have some
>real horror stories....
>
>There are really only two things keeping decent laminated soundboards out
of
>pianos today. One, of course, is a negative marketing history that would
>(might) make them somewhat more difficult to sell.  The marketing and sales
>people would have to eat some of the incorrect information they have fed
the
>market about laminated soundboards.  With some creative thinking -- and it
>seams that nearly all of the creative thinking these days is going on in
the
>marketing departments -- this could be done.  The other is design lethargy.
>Or, perhaps, the virtual absence of product design budgets in many of the
>remaining piano manufacturers.  I remain unconvinced that it cannot be
done.
>I believe that if just one manufacturer brought out a line of
>high-performance pianos using well designed laminated soundboards, it
>wouldn't be long before others were forced to get in on the switchover.
>
>The benefits are clear:
>    -- Potentially better sound across the scale, especially through the
>upper third of
>       the scale.
>    -- Better long-term tone stability.  I.e., crown stability is better --
>tone would not
>       deteriorate through the upper third of the scale as is common with
>some
>       soundboard designs.
>    -- Potentially lower manufacturing costs.
>    -- More consistent tone performance from one instrument to the next.
>    -- Far better tuning stability through even wildly swinging humidity
>variations.
>And, perhaps most important:
>    -- Much better utilization of a rapidly diminishing natural resource.
>
>Obviously this is not going to happen until the customer starts to demand a
>better product.  Actually, the customer is demanding something better --
>they are buying electronic keyboards to 'replace' the piano.  And can we
>blame them?  Drunk customers can't tell the difference in sound and they
>don't need tuning.  I can think of no excuse -- well, ok, complacency and
>fear -- for continuing to build pianos that have problems like this when we
>can do so easily do so much better.
>
>Regards
>
>Del
>
>