David Love wrote: > Just to chime in here a bit. I’ve heard some old Steinways for example > that still sounded quite good and the grain wasn’t particularly tight > and vice versa. I’ve heard various newer European pianos including > Steingraebber, Petrof, Fazioli, , Hamburg Steinway, Feurich. All had > very consistent looking boards with tight grain, nice workmanship. Some > sounded very nice and some, honestly, were disappointing especially > through the treble section. There’s clearly more going on. Wider grain > doesn’t seem to preclude achieving requisite stiffness nor does close > grain guarantee it. That's more or less what I meant. I can't tell by listening, what the grain density is in the panel. There are just too many other factors involved. >On my own boards I’ve produced some using quite > wide grain (5-8 per inch) that sounded just fine and I’ve used tighter > grain as well with good results. All of these were rib crowned and > supported, very little compression (6% emc at glue up). I don’t think > I’ve done any using the very dense heartwood so can’t comment there. I've used the pretty pink heartwood, which was low in growth ring count, but surprisingly heavy. Worked fine, to my ear. > I’d be curious what those who build rib crowned and supported boards > shoot for in terms of GPI. > I prefer 8-12. Ron N
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