Soundboard/Rib Clamps

[Farrell]

This post is for soundboard repair newbies and wannabies. It may not be of
interest to experienced rebuilders, unless of course I am doing something
dumb and you want a good laugh. ;-)  (kinda kidding)

 I am routing out cracks in an old soundboard and gluing the soundboard back
to loose ribs. In trying to figure out how to clamp board to ribs, I
realized any overhead pressure (go bars or the like) would be less than
optimal at locations where there was no structural beam under the soundboard
for blocking. I have seen several tips/articles in the Journal regarding
little soundboard/rib boat clamps - the ones with a small piece of pinblock,
a tuning pin, and a wire that wraps around the rib and draws it to the
topside pinblock piece. I made six of them. Wohah! How cool. They work
great. Real easy to use, fast, and super holding power - and if you don't
glue them to the soundboard (ha, ha, fooled ya, I did not do that - yet),
they remove very easily.

Maybe everyone already has and uses these. Maybe there is a better way.
Seems to work great to me. I took a bunch of pictures of the boats in use,
if anyone wants to pursue this method. Send me a note and I will email you
pictures & notes. It also employs a real easy-to-do secure termination for
the non-tuning pin end of the wire.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com