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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=2>Ron
Shiflet wrote: </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face=Arial =
size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" =
size=3><FONT
size=2> About a month ago, I started a thread about =
soundboards and
whether old wood sounded better than new wood. That discussion =
went into
overtime and I do NOT wish to start it =
over. Since that
thread was posted, I have torn apart a few landfill quality pianos =
for
experimental purposes. I disected the soundboards =
to see
what makes them tick, so to speak. Here's an observation =
for
your information.</FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">I tore apart 2 Lester spinets. =
The one
made in '46 had a solid spruce soundboard and several
cracks. The one made in '57 appeared to be a nice =
flawless
spruce board with no cracks. I very carefully removed it.
It turned out to be a plywood soundboard covered with a
beautiful grainy veneer on both sides. Perhaps that's =
why
it had no cracks? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Likely.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Perhaps that's also why it had =
the tone
it did. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>And what tone did it have?</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Today, my son is gutting an old =
Kimball spinet
with a mahogany soundboard. It too turns out to be veneer =
over
plywood. Tomorrow we'll get into a Story and Clark console =
with
the famous "Storytone" soundboard, made of mahogany. I may =
prove to
be wrong but I have a suspicion that I'm going to find mahogany =
veneer over
plywood.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>You have any doubt?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">My point =
is this: There
can be some hidden factors affecting the tone of a piano that =
both the
public and we as piano technicians may not be aware of...such as a =
misleading
soundboard.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Misleading? How so?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">In the future if I ever get into =
voicing an
older vertical piano again and the hammers won't give me the tone I =
thought
it would...maybe the hammers aren't the problem. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>It sounds like you are eluding to something else =
being a
problem. What might that be?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Terry
Farrell</FONT> </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>