I have only seen one other inverted board, on a brand new Baldwin console of the same vintage. It went back to the factory. This piano was in a black Pentecostal church and had several broken bass wires when I acquired it, along with some broken off catcher wires in the bass end. It looks like a pinky ring or really strong fingernail has whittled away at the cheek below low A. The sustain pedal was even bent. Could it really just have been played hard enough to cause the inversion? It has been damp. There was a fine mold residue on the keys and inner case surfaces. Don Hubbs _____ From: Delwin D Fandrich [mailto:del at fandrichpiano.com] Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 11:47 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Inverted soundboard Personally I'd be a little curious about just how all that reverse crown got in there. If the factory boys set the strings anywhere remotely close to the right place on those vertical hitches there shouldn't have been enough string bearing to force the board that far back. Flat, maybe, but not all the way back so the ribs are resting on the backposts. Makes me wonder just how there ended up being enough force against the bridges to cause this to happen in-what?-just 20 years. The fairly substantial ribs in these things should have been crowned to something like a 72' foot radius-don't ask-and I don't care how wet or dry the piano might have gotten in those 20 years I don't see how climate alone could have created all this damage. If the piano was in a very humid climate the soundboard should have done what soundboards do; developed a bunch of compression ridges and crushed. If it got all dry the panel should have just split wide open. Seems to me that to force that kind of inversion into the system there would have to have been a whole lot of excessive string bearing pressing against the bridges. Where did it come from? And is it still there? ddf Delwin D Fandrich Piano Design & Fabrication 620 South Tower Avenue Centralia, Washington 98531 USA del at fandrichpiano.com ddfandrich at gmail.com Phone 360.736.7563 From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Dale Erwin Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 8:53 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Inverted soundboard Bummer Don As a last resort. See if you can create a space between the post and the soundboard so there is no impingement. Who knows it may sound quite good. Perhaps you are unaware that some makers Have & are producing reverse crown boards and they sound quite good. At this point you and the client have nothing to loose. Good Luck Dale S. Erwin <http://www.Erwinspiano.com> www.Erwinspiano.com Custom restoration Ronsen Piano hammers Join the Weickert felt Revolution 209-577-8397 209-985-0990 -----Original Message----- From: Don Hubbs <donhubbs at mwt.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 7:02 pm Subject: [pianotech] Inverted soundboard I have a 1990 Baldwin 6000 (52" upright) with an inverted soundboard. The piano was evidently in a very damp environment at one time, since there were several loose glue joints, including the bass bridge to apron and some plywood delaminating in the bottom board . The inversion is severe enough that the ribs near the center of the board are pushing against a back post. The tone is even but weak. Is there any way to flip the soundboard back to its original position without destroying it? Can I just remove some wood from the back post to give the rib clearance and expect that to enlarge the tone? Bearing can be adjusted because of the Accu-hitch pins. Thanks for any suggestions or prior experiences. Don Hubbs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101207/401643ad/attachment-0001.htm>
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