alternatives for soundboard

[Ron Nossaman]

At 10:05 PM 12/2/98 +0100, you wrote:
>
>KESTENS.P@DEBCOM.BE
>BELGIUM
>Antares wrote:
>As far as I know, he wanted to invent a substitute for wooden soundboards.
>So he had a factory make a "crystal" soundboard with a crown and no ribs.
>The sound was very poor....
>
>I've had a little conversation with this man  and asked him about the crown
>of the crystal soundboard.
>He answered me that the crystal soundboard doesn't need any crown and that
>the crown with wooden soundboards is only there to opposite the downforce of
>the bridge and the strings.
>
>A reaction please
>
>Peter
>

Hi Peter,

The crown in a spruce board is to add stiffness without adding weight. A
crowned board is like a big spring whose stiffness increases as it's loaded
and deflected by string downbearing. It's an impedance control thing. Del
covered this pretty thoroughly in a couple of recent Journal articles, if
you have access to them. The 'crystal' soundboard is both too heavy, and not
stiff enough to function well as a soundboard. It doesn't surprise me that
Antares didn't like the sound. 

 Ron