[pianotech] Hailun soundboards

[George F Emerson]

No, it is not a translation issue ....well, not Chinese to English translation, rather Marketing-ese to Technician-ese.  The marketing folks wanted to avoid any association with the terms "laminated" or "plywood," so they came up with a term totally irrelevant to the soundboard structure, implying a convex shape, expecting that the consumer would have no idea what it really means, obscuring the reality with fancy rhetoric.

It reminds me of a famous English French horn player.  A group of younger horn player were complaining of the impossible technical difficulty of a ridiculously fast scale run in a classical masterpiece. (Rites of Spring, maybe?)  The Englishman's response was, "Just wiggle your fingers about and dazzle 'me with science, Boys."

Here is the Technician-ese translation:  The Hailun soundboards in uprights and smaller grands is laminated.  They have three plies with a lumber core, and veneer laminations, top and bottom.  Unlike traditional plywood, the surface veneer is at 15 degrees to the core (not 90).  The design intent is to preserve much of the flexibility of a solid panel, with the resistance to cracking of a laminated board, the best of both worlds.  

To read what another manufacturer might write to describe the exact same thing might sound like something entirely different, in Marketing-ese.


Frank Emerson

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: J Patrick Draine 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 9:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hailun soundboards


  It appears to be an inexact translation of a spec list/description. Gimme the original Chinese and I'll see if I can do better.
  Patrick Draine


  On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 8:56 PM, Mckeever, James I <mckeever at uwp.edu> wrote:



    The soundboard on Hailun uprights and smaller grands is described as follows:

    "All mountain spruce with 15 degree spruce meniscus coating for climatic resistance and flexibility."

    Never heard of it!  Is it a good thing?  How might it affect the sound?  The Hailun's I have played are surprisingly resonant, with good sustain.

    Comments encouraged!

    Thanks,

    Jim McKeever
    University of Wisconsin-Parkside

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110209/d1c060d1/attachment.htm>