New Old Bluthner Soundboard

[RicB]

Hi Calin.

I understand the viewpoint you express.  My feelings were and are that 
exactly what you say has been done so many times now that there was no 
real need to repeat the exercise. I changed only the details that I did 
(and nothing else) for the very express idea of isolating what I did 
from all other design issues in order to be able to more accurately 
judge the results of these changes.  In addition... I wanted to stay 
close to the kinds of things I imagine/believe/make educated guesses at 
that Bluthners original thinking were.  Hence I kept the grain angle the 
same, rib and <<cutoff bar>> (a kind of soundboard divider it seems in 
this case) dimensions all the same. The only thing we really did was 
introduce a little crown and extra stiffness to the treble area by way 
of the lamination process... which in itself does not represent a huge 
deviation from the original design with respect to grain angle since the 
middle ply is only 20 degrees offset and represents less then 1/3 of the 
total thickness of the panel.

With this approach I hope to maintain very much of the original bass 
sound and enhance the clarity and sustain of the treble area... 
otherwise keeping fairly close to the original sound.  Personally... I 
see no point in putting a completely modern belly in such an 
instrument... but thats just me.  I have approached this with the intent 
to more or less expound on the original design.  Move in much the same 
directions as he originally did.  We will see how well I succeeded when 
its finished.

And like I say...with respect to historical concerns.  The original 
soundboard will be cleaned up, refinished and framed so that  historical 
archive concerns are preserved. If somebody at any given point in the 
future decides to do exactly what you suggest then... they are able to 
refer to the original assembly and do exactly that.  I think I kind of 
have covered my rear end nicely in that regard :)

Cheers and thanks for the comments
RicB



    Ric,

    I find that changing the treble scale and the soundboard design
    (laminating
    it) makes the piano something else than an original 1850's Bluethner. I
    think preservation would have been the best solution with this
    instumrnt,
    along with building an exact replica, for those who want to hear how it
    probably sounded when new. And when I say exact replica, I mean one that
    includes all known aspects of the original design, including those
    we would
    nowadays consider faulty or detrimental to the instrument's longevity.

    Since you bothered changing some design details, you could have
    changed the
    whole design concept (like using better rib support and new rib
    locations
    with the laminated panel etc.) and make it into a better sounding
    and more
    useful instrument, at least according to modern taste.

    Terry,

    The new soundboard looks very nice, congratulations!

    Calin Tantareanu
    http://calin.haos.ro