[pianotech] old piano soundboards

[Ron Nossaman]

wimblees at aol.com wrote:

This is a seminar's worth all by itself.

> Those of you who think it is worth restoring old uprights, when you 
> evaluate them, do you consider the condition of the soundboard? 

If you don't then you're not doing your bloody job, are you?


>Is it 
> worth it, to replace it, or do you just shim and refinish it?
> 
> Wim

Worth it? To whom? If it needs replaced, which it almost 
certainly does, is the resulting expectation of performance 
worth the cost to the owner? If it's not, is the income for 
the "rebuilder" worth putting a shim, refinish, and stringing 
on a trash soundboard a fair trade for whatever professional 
standards he may secretly, and conditionally, harbor? It 
depends on the rebuilder, doesn't it, and the availability of 
more honorable sources of income, DOESN'T IT? Realistically? 
"Will do ANYTHING for a buck" means just that, whatever it 
entails. All peripheral fallout is emotionally (glandularly) 
justified by the NEED. "Standards" are a more tenuous and 
negotiable concept, requiring reconciliation of "ethics" with 
socioeconomic circumstance. Since "ethics" is an artificial 
judgment condensed from and predicated by currently prevailing 
socioeconomic circumstance, rather than any sort of absolute, 
it's functionally meaningless outside of a defined set of 
universally agreed upon "rules". Unfortunately, lacking such 
lick and stick mindless rules, all this requires a tech who 
actually has some remote clue what the HELL he's talking 
about, the skill set and experience to realistically evaluate 
what he's looking at, and the gonads to do what he thinks is 
right, even (horrors) at the cost of his short term income 
potential.

There's more, but if this doesn't say it, the rest is scree.
Ron N