<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: R,C&S question</title></head><body> <div>Jude and all,</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><i><b>. . . I'll just have to try a pure RC&S for myself.</b></i></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Please do take the plunge. It would have been a real leap of faith not so long ago. But there are too many examples of successful attempts out there, which should give you more confidence to leap in.</div> <div><br></div> <div>I believe the purest version of RC&S is to use a laminated panel with an appropriately-designed crowned rib set. If a solid panel is used, when building an RC&S board, there remains some assistance from the re-hydrated panel. This is not however, a criticism of the practice of drying solid RC&S panels down to 6 - 7%, since it would be quite dangerous to build any solid paneled board without some pre-drying, to avoid the likelihood of checking during dry transients. But when a laminated panel is used, the problem of checking is/will be totally avoided, and the maker is free to bring the panel and ribs together for gluing under normal room conditions. This might seem like heresy to some of the older school piano men and women, but if the rib set has been designed appropriately, such an instrument will have a very satisfactory tone, and will be likely to continue doing so for decades and decades and not just a very few years, as is the case with some of the contemporary offerings.</div> <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" size="-4" color="#000000">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></x-sigsep> <div><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1" color="#0000FF"><b>OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY</b></font></div> <div><font color="#000000"><i>   </i></font><font color="#0000FF"><i>Grand Piano Manufacturers</i></font><font color="#000000"><br> _______________________</font></div> <div><font size="-2" color="#000000"><br> </font><font color="#000000">Web http://overspianos.com.au</font></div> <div><font color="#000000">mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au<br> _______________________</font></div> </body> </html>