The Soundboard bit.. RC&S

[Clark Panaccione]

Wolfenden criticised some old fashioned ideas.

"The customary method of producing this - viz., by
bending each bar into a strong block hollowed to the
intended amount of the arching, gripping it down in
the middle, and planing the joint side to a straight
line - gives a fairly regular curve, although not
quite circular. 
"The old makers (even those of the writer's own early
days) used a ridiculous method : they glued on the
bars with the board lying cold upon a flat table, with
the consequence that when (upon the release of the
pressure) the bars resumed their curvature, the grain
of the face of the board was pulled open) and
sometimes the joints also!)."

"For some reason, never stated, it was regarded as
desirable that the surface of the board should be in
tension.
"The very opposite is the case, and modern practice
all over the world, aims to put the board itself into
a state of compression, so that it is contantly acting
to assist the bars to do their duty."  p246-7, p.96-7.
S. Wolfenden, The Art of Pianoforte Construction. The
Gresham Press, Old Woking, Surrey, 1916, 1927

Clark


 
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