<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.17095" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 bgColor=#ffffff leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7> <DIV>I've relied solely on the pluck test for years. I feel it gives the best true test of the board activity.</DIV> <DIV>Tom Servinsky</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=PAULREVENKOJONES@aol.com href="mailto:PAULREVENKOJONES@aol.com">PAULREVENKOJONES@aol.com</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, March 18, 2011 11:28 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [pianotech] What is bloom,</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 3/18/2011 9:08:15 P.M. Central Daylight Time, <A href="mailto:david@davidandersenpianos.com">david@davidandersenpianos.com</A> writes:</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>I can't believe that it's just Erwin and I who pluck strings, in the method described below, to assess soundboard health. All this speculative</DIV> <DIV>sorta scientific wondering is missing the point. Good soundboards produce a bloom or a swell, a strengthening pulse, an added sustain, when the string is plucked, usually within 2 seconds of the pluck. </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Dave, I've been doing this for years, but my "rule" is the 1 or 2 second rule---does it pop at one or two seconds? After 2 seconds is a bad sign and almost always with little energy. 2 seconds for the midrange, and 1 second for the treble. Make sense?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>P</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></BODY></HTML>