<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Just ran into this on the net... looking for something else... Its from Steinways website. Thought some of you might find it .... well interesting. Cheers RicB Soundboard Created like the soundboard of violins to give a free and even response throughout the entire scale, it is so constructed as to be 8 mm thick in the center and tapered to 56 mm as it approaches the rim and outer case before being DOUBLE CROWNED. This design permits complete freedom of movement, while acting as a homogenous unit to displace a greater amount of air, thereby creating a richer and more lasting tonal response. Close-grained, quarter-sawn Sitka spruce, a wood having unusual stability and vibrance under stress and vibration, is used exclusively for the soundboard. Ribs Made from durable, resinous sugar pine to assure strong and constant support of string down-bearing on the soundboard. Rib ends are hand-fitted into their mounting surfaces virtually locking in the important soundboard crown. Bridges Treble: Hard rock maple vertical laminations capped with solid hard rock maple; planed to prescribed height, graphite coated, drilled, and notched by hand for precise individual string bearing. Design defies splitting. Bass: Solid rock maple mounted to cantilevered at splined base. Maple doweled, glued, and screwed to soundboard. </body> </html>