Old Board, New Strings, Report

[Farrell]

I hear a lot about restoring crown to old soundboards.

I read posts that say it can't be done, or if it is done to some limited
extent, it won't last.

I am moving a recent refurbish job to a client's home today. 1930s Estey 4'
11". MASSIVE framing underneath. The piano was apparently stored outside or
in a poor shed in Florida before I got it. Most strings had rusted off. You
could not evaluate the soundboard because it had so many cracks and at each
crack, the board had pulled away from the rib and curled upwards along the
edges/cracks.

I dried that puppy out until it had twice as many cracks (small
exaggeration). I poured all kinds of CA glue, etc. around the edge to make
sure the board did not pop out when I blocked it up. I blocked the he.. out
of it. I glued and clamped all loose panel/rib joints. I Spurlocked in
umpteen feet of shims (maybe 20 - 25 feet) while keeping 100 watts of
Damp-Chaser rods underneath toasting board. I chiseled shims and sanded till
I had a board that felt and looked like new. After block removal, I had an
easy 1/4" of smooth crown. Man was I proud of myself.

I measured and measured downbearing, adjusting the plate slightly - even put
a new bass bridge cap on to minimize any compromise. In the end, downbearing
was real nice (slightly on the light side because of old board) for old
board and original long bridge cap (I resurfaced & renotched cap and epoxied
in new pins) - I was pumped! I strung it and slowly brought it up to pitch.
Just for kicks, and because of talk on this list about recrowning, I looked
at bearing. Bearing is like Zippo. OK in the hi treble, a tad in mid treble
and bass, but Zero in treble and tenor (most of the long bridge). And I mean
Zero. Nadda. Flat little  string doggies. (I would not be surprised if the
strings were holding the board up in places! - My component downbearing
gauge has a broken foot, I only had my little three-point brass gauge to
use.) I would have measured crown under board, but as a result of the
shimming, some shims hang down 1/8" or 1/16" below board in places and some
glue drips and yukko would prevent any accurate measurement.

Piano doesn't sound too bad. Sanderson's bass strings sound pretty good for
a small piano. Hi treble is a sorry story. Most of the treble is pretty
short sustain. Volume is good in Killer Octave zone.

End result: This attempt at improving a bad soundboard performance was not
productive (likely better than not doing any board repairs, but obviously
did not meet my hopes - notice I do not say expectations!).

That's my report!

Terry Farrell