<!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 6.00.2900.2802" 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=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>  David</DIV> <DIV>  I just read the article as well & had the exact same questions.  Experientially what this potentially creates is a less chao= tic board movementwhich translates into what my ear describes as a cleaner, more= focused homogenous sound accompanied by increased sustain.  So tha= t being said, & however we define whatever it.. is, the effect, is something that a whole bunch of people seem to enjoy.  These assumption= s have a merit.  With the bass cut off bar installed I have thought of it= as the ribs being more of equidistant length tend to move in unison as do equal= lengths of  3 string plain wire unison ecomomizing energy & movemen= t. Makes sense to me especially after seeing the modes of movement in these board.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  Dale Erwin</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>http://www.speech.kth.se/music/5_lectures/wogram/ribbing.html<BR>= <BR>After reading the Wogram article, in particular the part on soundboard<BR>resonances, <STRONG>I'd be curious to hear from soundboard designers how this<BR>relates to the construction of bass cut-offs. From a= purely empirical point<BR>of view, the bass cutoff (and there may be other= factors but let's leave it<BR>at this single issue for the moment) seems t= o make the tone much cleaner,<BR>purer, if you will</STRONG>.  After looking at the digrams of modal analysis and<BR>wondering about the distortions in the bass corner that appear, I can only<BR>imagine that wit= h a full bass cutoff, those diagrams would be somewhat<BR>different, more unif= orm, less chaotic.  But my question has more to do with<BR>what the consequence are for the overall tonal impression of the piano<BR>between t= he two systems.  If the board without the cutoff gives rise to some<BR>m= ore random pattern of resonances, might not that translate to a somewhat<BR>mo= re random or, expressed differently, more complex sounding tone in the<BR>piano.  While controlling random resonances on the surface of = it seems like<BR>a good thing, might it not have the effect of making the pia= no, to some<BR>ears, sound somewhat too pure or somewhat more sterile.  N= ow I'm not<BR>suggesting that's the case, btw, I'm just wondering if I'm read= ing these<BR>diagrams correctly and what this means in terms of the choices ab= out to<BR>cutoff or not to cutoff.<BR><BR>David Love<BR>davidlovepianos@comcast.net </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>