On Mon, 19 Aug 1996, James E DeRocher wrote: > Rob, > > My guess is that some salesperson who had a weak grasp of a sales feature > related same to a customer who had even a lesser grasp. > I know that laminated soundboards, such as Samick's, have proven to > be 71% less responsive than traditional spruce plank soundboards to > ambient humidity changes due primarily to the semipermeable moisture > barrier afforded by the glue line under the top and bottom surface > veneers. > > Jim > tunerjim@juno.com > This post brings up an opinion that I have had for a while, and I wonder if I am in the monority about it. I know that laminated soundboards, the first, I think, being the Storytone Soundboard, have been promoted as being able to help the piano stay tuned better, for reasons such as those stated in the above post. Also, sales people will tell you that a laminated board will respond less to humidity because the grains are perpendicular and therefor will not let expantion or contraction travel throughout the board as easily, making it more stable. But, my experiences seem to have been that laminated soundboard pianos don't stay tuned any better or worse than solid soundboard pianos, there are just too many other factors acting on the tuning stability, such as how near it was in tune and how well it was tuned (how much care was used during the tuning how well the pins were set), and the tightness of the pins,the humidity environment and how hard and/or often the piano is played, etc. By no means do I think that laminated soundboards are worse at making the piano stay tuned, I think they are "just another way of doing things." If they are so wonderful, why doesn't Steinway, whose pianos sell for so much that they could use almost any construction technique they wanted, use them? > This stuff in the above post about semi-permiable glue joints and 71% less likely to get out of tune is nothing more than marketing (this is not meant as a flame to the original poster, but to all those marketing types who make that stuff up.) Arnold Schmidt, Raleigh, NC
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