The finite life of wood grain

[John Delacour]

At 22:46 +0200 23/10/08, andré oorebeek wrote:

>What I have to say about it, is that, in - my - experience, 
>installing a new board always sounded much better than putting new 
>ribs on an old board.
>You know me, I know you, we are old hands in this business, we know 
>what we are talking about.

Maybe, but that is quite different from saying that the wood of which 
the old board is made has deteriorated through age.  Provided it has 
not been damaged by compression, the wood of the original board could 
be used to make a new (thinner) board for, say, a harpsichord or 
antique pianoforte and the result would be as good as or better than 
new wood.   The proposition that age alone causes wood to deteriorate 
is nonsense.  It is the soundboard as a mechanical structure that can 
deteriorate if it is made in certain ways, but there are many 
soundboards in very old pianos that are as good as they were 120 or 
140 years ago because they were properly designed.

The very title of this topic "the finite life of wood grain" is meaningless.

JD


-- 
______________________________________________________________________
   Delacour Pianos  *  Silo  *  Deverel Farm  *  Milborne St. Andrew
                      Dorset DT11 0HX  *  England
                        Phone:  +44 1202 731031
          Mobile: +44 7801 310 689   *   Fax: +44 870 705 3241 
______________________________________________________________________