<!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 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Laminated soundboard panels got a bad = reputation from cheap, poorly designed and manufactured spinets, et. al. of the = 1950s, 1960s, etc. I've got a couple questions about these.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Was there anything wrong with the = panels in these pianos, or was is only that the rest of the piano was terrible, so the = panel earned the same reputation as the rest of the piano, or was the = panel itself poorly designed and/or made. I know some of them had = mahogany as the outer laminate - I don't know how thick that laminate was - perhaps = there were panel density problems. Was the rest of the panel made out of Sitka or = similar spruce?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm just trying to understand if a quarter-sawn laminated Sitka Spruce panel made today is = incorporated into a well-designed and built piano, I presume it will perform as = well as a solid spruce panel (maybe better when you consider tuning stability = and longevity).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Also, why, in those cheap little = spinets of yesteryear, did they use laminated panels on the soundboard? Isn't it = more expensive to go through all the work of laminating up a panel compared = to a solid panel? Maybe it is because they used old wood from industrial = warehouse pallets in the panels?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry = Farrell</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>