<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16587" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>    <STRONG><EM>     Ron</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Coming up for air mate?</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Nice to hear from you.  I guess I missed that part.  I didn't realize the Rochester piano had a laminated board. Oh well it still sounded truly unbelievable.  SO I guess it doesn't effect my opinion of what I heard....grin.  What Kind of crown did this board have before it was glued in? Is the crown a variable radius design?</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>cheers</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Dale</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Several of the new pianos we've built had a laminated panel, including the piano we exhibited in Rochester in 2006. Here's an image of the soundboard for no. 6, just before it was fitted.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000 size=-4>http://members.optuszoo.com.au/ronovers/NO6.14.jpg</FONT></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>These boards, with the piano strung and at pitch, remain crowned enough for a string line across the underside of the mid-panel to nearly clear the height of the soundboard buttons. Crown remains over the entire area of the soundboard, without any of the typical overloading at the bridge 'lines' and the perimeter of the soundboard.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>There's more evolution left in the piano yet. Let's not let the stagnation of the past century put us off. Let's make the new piano century one for history in the making.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Ron O.</DIV><X-SIGSEP><PRE>-- </PRE></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Who's never won? <A title="http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548" href="http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548" target="_blank">Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>