Crack fillers - old soundboards

[Joseph Garrett]

PR-J,
Not in my experience. I done too many boards with no/negative crown to
varify that shimming, (if done properly), does do more than cosmetic. I
firmly believe that shimming does add latent energy to the board. Although,
it is definately not as good as a new board, sometimes it's the only
alternative to scrapping an otherwise decent instrument.
Regards,
Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
----- Original Message -----
From: <Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 1:52 PM
Subject: Re: Crack fillers - old soundboards


> In a message dated 4/30/2001 2:14:21 PM Central Daylight Time,
> mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:
>
> << Sometimes cracks cause buzzing. Filling them or proper shimming
>  will stop/prevent a buzz from a cracked soundboard >>
>
> The crack doesn't cause the buzzing but the pieces of splintered wood
> adjacent to each other across the gap of the crack. Shims will always
recrack
> along the glued edges at some point, so now there are three cracks instead
of
> one. Delaminated ribs are indeed another issue and need to be addressed
> appropriately. I guess I don't mean to be such a hardass about this, but
over
> the years I've concluded (always subject to correction) that shimming is
just
> about as close to purely cosmetic as you can get; it makes the customer
(or
> buyer) think that there is no longer a problem, but the problem (the cause
of
> the original cracking) hasn't been fixed, just sidestepped. I'd appreciate
> your take on this.
> PR-J