Bridge Pressure Bar

Alan Forsyth alanforsyth@fortune4.fsnet.co.uk
Tue, 15 Apr 2003 01:42:24 +0100


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Del, Thanks for your explanation of soundboard impedance.
In your other posting you wrote as follows;

  [ "The soundboard system will be more flexible if it does not have a
string plane bearing against it. It will be stiffer if it does."  and "The
whole idea of loading the soundboard with string bearing is to make it
stiffer (or "springier")." and then in a later message "Assuming, of course,
that its string scaling, its soundboard and rib system and its supporting
structure (soundboard liners, back assembly, etc.) is
otherwise relatively conventional." ]

If stiffness was designed into the soundboard in the first place would there
be a need for string pressure?

Here is a picture of the cross section of the soundboard that goes with this
pressure bar (image also attached) system. As you can see it IS
unconventional. The soundboard is double skinned, the outer panels being
only 2mm thick. The overall thickness of the board is 15mm. The ribs are
23mm X 11mm placed 33mm apart. Because of the double skin, this board is
very stiff, and very light. It is also my intuitive guess that this
soundboard would be fairly immune to humidity changes - the theory being
that, I suppose, the less material there is, the less moisture it can absorb
or release and therefore the less it will tend to "heave".

Sorry I don't have higher resolution pictures, but I am only a Tuner and
can't afford such fancy gizmos to provide such.

You see, I am just trying to figure out why after 300 years of piano
construction, the problem of the killer octave and soundboard failure has
not yet been solved. Make the soundboard with the desired impedance built
into it before anything else, then use a system of string to bridge contact
that doesn't rely on downbearing and hey presto.......no additional stress
on the soundboard, no killer octave......but I suppose it is more
complicated than that!

If a picture paints a thousand words then a phone call must be worth a
million e-mails.

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