Audrey Karabinus wrote: >You mentioned that Bubinga and Sapele are the types used in hammer moldings, and that Bubinga is from Africa. Do you know where Sapele is from? You also mentioned that Young Chang gets their Luann and Nyatoh from S.E. Asia -- what are those the types used for veneers? First let me repeat - I am by no means an expert on woods. What I say here is from my experience with Young Chang only. Sapele wood also comes from Africa as far as I know. It is the most beautiful veneer wood for piano exteriors (ever see a British made mahogany upright? That's usually sapele), but is hard to work with, and lots of wood is lost when the log is milled. Luann is a light weight, soft mahogany. It grows quickly and is being replenished, but to what degree I don't know. Most oriental manufacturers use Luann in their grand rims, and if they use "laminated hardwoods" in other cabinet parts this is usually Luann. The yield after cutting luann is excellent, and it's easy to work with in manufacturing, which is why it's used so much. It is not cheap - the raw logs are much more expensive per board foot than maple. Even after figuring for the losses in cutting (something like 10% of the luann is lost, while 30% or so of Maple is lost) it costs more than maple. But it's so easy to work with that the manufacturers continue to use it for rims and cabinet parts, etc. Smells good when being cut, too. Nyatoh is not a true mahogany, but it looks like a dark reddish mahogany. It is harder than some maples, and is used for structural parts in the piano. For a while Young Chang grands had Nyatoh rims, but supply problems stopped that. You must not see many new Young Chang pianos. So far Young Chang is holding at about 12 grains per inch because our lumber mill in Washington is doing a good job of acquiring the Spruce. We also sell some Spruce to other manufacturers, and the volume allows us to keep the best for ourselves. The difference in cost between a laminated Spruce board and a solid board depends completely on what is used in the core. If a laminated Spruce board is made well, then the material costs are nearly the same as a solid board - the inner spruce can be wide grain, but the grain angle and the consistency throughout the board is still important. Leaving a knot in the core under the bridge would do strange things to the tone! The reason people use laminated boards is because they usually DO hide awful wood in the center. That's really why these boards sound so bad. A laminated board can be designed to sound good, but then the cost of the board isn't much (if any) lower than a solid board. So why make it that way? Don Mannino
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