veneer over soundboards

[Ron & Lorene Shiflet]

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List,
    About a month ago, I started a thread about soundboards and whether =
old wood sounded better than new wood.  That discussion went into =
overtime and I do NOT wish to start it over.  Since that thread was =
posted, I have torn apart a few landfill quality pianos for experimental =
purposes.  I disected the soundboards to see what makes them tick, so to =
speak.  Here's an observation for your information. =20

I tore apart 2 Lester spinets.  The one made in '46 had a solid spruce =
soundboard and several cracks.  The one made in '57 appeared to be a =
nice flawless spruce board with no cracks.  I very carefully removed it. =
 It turned out to be a plywood soundboard covered with a beautiful =
grainy veneer on both sides.  Perhaps that's why it had no cracks?  =
Perhaps that's also why it had the tone it did. =20

Today, my son is gutting an old Kimball spinet with a mahogany =
soundboard.  It too turns out to be veneer over plywood.  Tomorrow we'll =
get into a Story and Clark console with the famous "Storytone" =
soundboard, made of mahogany.  I may prove to be wrong but I have a =
suspicion that I'm going to find mahogany veneer over plywood. =20

My point is this:  There can be some hidden factors affecting the tone =
of a piano that both the public and we as piano technicians may not be =
aware of...such as a misleading soundboard.   =20

In the future if I ever get into voicing an older vertical piano again =
and the hammers won't give me the tone I thought it would...maybe the =
hammers aren't the problem.   =20



regards

Ron Shiflet    =20
  
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