The Soundboard bit.. was Steinways / David Andersen

[RicB]

Hi William

I'm just trying to keep separate issues separate.  The fact is that the 
soundboard issue is obviously in dispute. That has nothing to do with my 
personal view... its just a summation of what one hears out there in the 
world. Even these past few posts from the various participants reveals 
that.   Probably has a lot more to do with subjective opinion and to 
some lesser degree even prejudice then anything else. I say that 
completely dispassionately.  The fact is many companies have endeavored 
greatly to imitate Steinway in every fashion and by now it is no secret 
to the other major players in the game how Steinway makes their 
soundboards. I simply can not resolve in my mind why then it is only the 
Steinway CC board that has a self destruct mechanism that gives rise to 
the Killer octave syndrome and in general the woes of the piano world. 
Seriously. Now if somebody can explain why this is so... I'll be more 
then eager and willing to listen.

As for the prep work.  Thats something that can be worked with beyond 
factory walls.  And there are positive avenues to that problem that are 
open to those who wish to take them.  And again.. dispassionately.... 
those who have other agendas / motivations / what-have-yous can and will 
take what avenues they wish.

I'm just trying as best I can to sort out facts from other stuff and try 
to put things catagories that are easy to deal with.

You put the question

    "Do you think that the fact that their boards are not dried as much
    could
    contribute to problems?"

I would point out (again with absolutely no passion involved) that the 
main criticism with the CC Steinway board is that they force such 
compression levels into the board that the things basically collapse. 
Since drying out a board even further before ribbing introduces even 
more compression then otherwise... I am not sure I understand your question.

Cheers
RicB


    Ric,

    Get over it.  I don't think we're all saying that only S&S boards
    are [bad]
    or whatever.  I think the main point here remains that a company
    that claims
    to be the best in the world, should be producing a top quality product.
    Their soundboards are not.  Neither are their actions, for that
    matter.  So
    if it confuses the issue for you to think that S&S pianos have
    problems with
    soundboards in addition to other problems, I think that is for you to
    reconcile, not the list.

    Interesting, though that you point out:

    "Now why only Steinways... who are a bit more moderate then some in
    how much
    they dry out their panels then some to begin with....."

    Do you think that the fact that their boards are not dried as much
    could
    contribute to problems?

    Best,
    William R. Monroe