Soundboard repairs

[Glenn Grafton]

Dear List:

We encountered a complaint from a customer of ours on a new Kimball grand
piano that is a few years old. It's a 6'6" Vienese Classic grand. The
complaint was that they noticed some cracks in the soundboard.

I went out last April and evaluated the piano. There were about 5 cracks in
the bass corner, all but one or 2 were located in the "coffin corner" (that
is positioned in the left corner of the soundboard). None of them were open
that you could see through, but they were noticable.

I contacted Kimball, who was very helpful in trying to rectify the problem,
they suggested doing the repair in the church using the Dryberg system.

We decided to bring the piano into our shop and give them a loaner grand.
On inspection of the piano in the shop the cracks are not visible at all,
unless you really look close at the finish.

Another of our technicians and myself feel that the cracks in the board
were probably due to excessive dryness in the church in April. (The church
has hot air heat.) And that once the piano was in a normal humidity range
(October) the soundboard is at it's proper dimensions.

My question is what anyone would suggest we do, in light of the fact that
the cracks are not visible now. Simply returning the piano and suggesting
that we install a dampchaser system may not be received very well.

Thanks for your input.

Glenn Grafton
Grafton Piano & Organ Co.
1(800)272-5980