I certainly couldn't testify to the notion that there are many undead soundboards around, at least not that are 100 years old and certainly not that rely on 100% compression crowning. Most would be better suited to use as siding on your house (something you might consider given your description below). Most soundboards of that age (in modern pianos) have some level of failure. Therein, perhaps, lies the problem. It's one of definition. Often tenor and bass sections of older pianos can be passable (assuming no massive glue joint failure). That's not surprising since the acoustic requirements at that end of the piano will be more forgiving on a board which has lost its stiffness or crown even though the sound may just be less bad than in other more demanding parts of the piano. Specifically, the treble section, where the acoustic requirements are such that stiffness is required to capture the high frequency vibrations of that part of the scale, is more prone to failure and it is more evident when it does fail especially in comparison to the rest of the piano. If you are willing to accept that success in a soundboard means that only half the piano needs to perform "ok" while the other half performs poorly then the incidence of soundboard failure might be over reported. But if you demand that the board perform equally well through the scale, then it is likely that the incidence of soundboard failure is underreported. The occasional board that does survive I would ascribe to the peculiar characteristics of that piece of wood, stable and benign environments over the life of the piano, lower threshold of compression in the crowning process, combined with design characteristics that lend themselves to reducing stresses on the panel. Unfortunately, that doesn't describe the experience of most pianos. Pre-modern pianos are something different with different levels of stress, different scales and different tonal expectations. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Richard Brekne Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 12:49 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: The finite life of wood grain The whole problem with this <<soundboards die>> thing is first and foremost the fact that there are way too many undead old soundboards around. This goes for all types of soundboard constructions. Wood that is subjected to seasonal climate changes that are sufficiently large is going to deteriorate no matter what the application. Wood that is in stable enough conditions will last a very long time indeed. We see many 100 year old instruments, particularly Steinways that have very fine functioning soundboards. Full of life and punch, no so-called killer octave, lovely response and lots of projection power. The compression damage argument when matched up with the basic RC&S philosophy gets shot in its foot. A panel may indeed be very much reduced in size cross grain compared to its original size due to permanent compression set, but when you dont rely on compression to begin with to build a panel.. then this fact is by definition a plus. Nothing about the permanent compression set inhibits the panel from being re-used thus. Only folks willingness to re-process an old soundboard does. I can refer to a discussion on the matter where Delwin Fandrich himself says exactly this in an exchange between André, myself, and Del about 8 years ago now. There is also the subject of how well wood is seasoned before taken into use. There are many 3-400 year old houses around here. Small houses made completely of wood. Mite damage is really the major problem. But those that escaped that and were otherwise taken reasonably good care of are in very fine shape. I have on the other hand 20 year old siding on my 300 year old house that has developed wood rot in several places. I've re-painted every 3 years, done all the stuff you are supposed to do but the stuff just cant match siding that was / is on houses that is from the turn of the last century. We see newer wood constructed houses (from the 60's onwards) developing serious structural problems all the time around here. Cheers RicB
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