This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment What type of system do you use to loosen various glues, i.e., hide, aliphatic resin, that soundboards are glued on with? I'm trying to loosen a soundboard/hitchpin rail on a harpsichord. And I am serious...no monk jokes or trivial patter... Joy! Elwood =20 Elwood Doss, Jr., RPT Piano Technician/Technical Director Department of Music 145 Fine Arts Building The University of Tennessee at Martin Martin, TN 38238 731/881-1852 FAX: 731/881-7415 HOME: 731/587-5700 _____ =20 From: Calin Tantareanu [mailto:calin.tantareanu@gmx.net]=20 Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 4:29 AM To: Pianotech Subject: Re: Soundboard Removal =20 =20 Calin said: "In that case, I =3D would say preserving as much of the original substance as possible is =3D the priority. You don't want to turn it into a modern piano, but make it =3D sound the was it was supposed to in the 1850's." =20 Calin, First I would have to take MAJOR exception with your comment, in your previous post, that Americans don't have respect for Tradition! Many do not, but a large percentage of Technicians, that I've met and talked with, DO! I for one have such "Respect". However, in this post you say it will sound like it did when it was built, ONLY if you use the original sound board. To that I say B.S.! Joe, first of all you make a confusion, I didn't make the comments about American respect for tradition. That another person, check the previous e-mails. =20 And I didn't mean to say it will sound the way it did ONLY with the original soundboard. I meant it is good to preserve the original substance (if possible and reasonable - that is, not damaged beyond repair) because it is a historical instrument. I think in such cases it is more important to preserve the original work and materials. If one wants to really have it sound like new, just make a copy of it, carefully measuring the original and using the same materials. You would probably get quite close. I really don't approve of discarding soundboards from historically significant instruments. That doesn't include the average Steinway, Bechstein or whatever piano made in the last 100 years or so, there are hundreds of those out there, which can be modified without any concerns for destroying historically significant instruments. But a very early piano is a different thing, which needs to be preserved, not modernized. Imagine one would put a new soundboard and make a new string scale for an original Cristofori piano... what would that be? That's how I see things. I just finished a complete Restoration of an 1867 Chickering, 8', flat strung Grand. If I had used the original board, it would have sounded like crap!!! Although, I'm sure, that originally the piano sounded as it does now, with a new board and judicious scale improvements that HAVE to be done, as our current supply of bass string supplies do not allow an "exact" replacement. Also, If I'm going to go to all that trouble, why the hell would I want to put the "assembly line" screw ups back in the piano? The end result, I am sure, for the Chickering is a slightly improved end result than the original, but not to the point of destroying the essence of what the original intent/sound was.=20 Well, slightly improved is not original. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do that, Just that it's not as it was originally any more. I would probably do the same with most pianos, except a few which have some significance and deserve to be kept unchanged. =20 This same thinking is now prevelant regarding the "restoration" of Steinways. It's crap and Steinway knows it, but they persist with this: "if it doesn't have all original Steinway parts than it isn't a Steinway" garbage. I'm old enough to know what a new steinway sounded like when it was new, back 4 decades. It sure as hell didn't sound like the #%%^^* CRAP that is touted as the "Heritage" line they espouse to! Now you are straying quite far from the subject. I don't buy the "original parts" thing either, since Steinway doesn't make all the parts, but buys them from Renner and other makers. Too often Technicians think that the original maker knew what he was doing and achieved his end goal, on every piano he manufactured! Hogwash! If the board is shot, in terms of the cellular structure of the wood, it's SHOT! It needs to be replaced. Whether a tech chooses to do it the way the original maker did, OR make the end product capable of lasting Longer and sounding Better, than the original, than so be it. I, for one, chose to TRY to maintain the original INTENT of the maker, if that is possible, but I sure as hell am not going to waste my time REPRODUCING mistakes and crap! Your approach works for most pianos. But remember that in some instruments (and just a few) it is better to preserve whatever mistake the maker made. Because it's more important for people to be able to experience them in their original state. =20 Regards, =20 =20 Calin Tantareanu ---------------------------------------------------- http://calin.1L.com ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/38/0b/93/42/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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