<!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 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>So if I completely understand what = you said, it is impossible for a soundboard to become petrified because the = petrification appears after thousands of years. </EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV>Correct - and because petrification is a process of mineral = replacement facilitated by groundwater - ya gotta bury the piano.......</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM></EM></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>But I'm sure someone talked about = this to explain why an old soundboard could not remain as powerful as a new one.</EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV>I'm not the expert on that, but sure, there are many reasons an old = soundboard might not be as powerful as a new one - cellular = compression damage to the panel, ribs warping, glue joints failing - basically, = deformation cause by loading and atmospheric conditions.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM></EM></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Wasn't it you BTW who said that in = a past topic?</EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV>I sure hope I have never said <EM>that "an old soundboard could not = remain as powerful as a new one".</EM> I think it is unlikely, but I think one = will likely be proved wrong if one says never (or could not) - there's always = (er, well, usually) an exception.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Terry Farrell</DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>