<HTML>In a message dated 11/3/2002 6:04:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:Yamaha Soundboard Wood Date:11/3/2002 6:04:49 AM Pacific Standard Time From:<A HREF="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com</A> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> To:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> Sent from the Internet                        Terry</BLOCKQUOTE>                                   I was also shocked the first time I noticed this. It looked like they recycled the wood in piano sounboard crates and made up a soundboard. Sound board shaped object. (S.S.O.) But we are talking entry level PIANO SHAPED OBJECT  here. No real surprise. Many P.S.O.'S have the same criteria. Don't use the good wood here!!!!!!!           Dale Erwin <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> I went to my son's piano recital at the new local Yamaha dealer yesterday. Being that I will be laying out boards to make up my first soundboard panel in the next few weeks, I was drawn to inspect this sampling of new Yamaha soundboards. I was shocked. With fair consistency, the lower grade Yamy grands, i.e. GH1, etc., had panel pieces with as few as 5 annular rings per inch! It appeared that the ring angle was far from 90 degrees also (but of course difficult to see exactly). Such a piece would have a neighbor with a very high ring density. Colors were all over the place also (not that I think color means a hoot, except for marketing purposes). They had a couple C7s there also. These boards were pure creamy white with very even moderate ring densities. I was not so surprised that they would choose to put nice wood in the nice piano, but rather that they used such a lower grade spruce in their entry-level grands. >From a resource preservation standpoint, this is likely a very good thing! I suspect upgrading the wood on these little pianos would make little difference to the musical potential of these pianos, and even less to the folks that would buy them. Terry Farrell   </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>