Years ago I was very much into harpsichord building. I was awarded a studies abroad grant from the university were I worked. The object of my study was harpsichords. Interviewing an English builder was enlightening regarding soundboards in these early instruments. He believed that the elaborate decorative painting of soundboards was primarily to hide the defects in the wood. He was often surprised when he opened the bottom of an old instrument at how poor the wood was, when revealed from the bottom side. He described these soundboards as looking like a patchwork quilt. He was even more surprised when many of these instruments with cosmetically poor soundboards where the better sounding instruments. The one-liner that best describes his observations is this: "You could always tell when England was at war. The Navy got all of the good spruce and the harpsichord builder has to resort to old apple crates for soundboard material." Frank Emerson
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