Alternate materials have been tried for soundboards, but so far not successfully. Perhaps Del will comment. I am sure that it can be done, but I imagine doing it right would be too expensive to justify it - yet. Lexan is most likely not stiff enough in relation to its mass to work well. Thinned and stiffened with something else, though, it might work. You may buy ABS parts from Kawai, but you would have to pick and choose those that might work. The flanges do not fit traditional wood action rail designs, so either the rail or the flanges would have to be modified to work. The ABS will hold up fine - but the buckskin and felt parts will wear out just as fast as with wood parts! Replacement part companies do not use ABS because the tooling costs are extremely high to get started. Molds would have to be designed and built for so many old parts that it would be hard to justify. It's easier to machine wood parts to shape. Hmmm, that gives me an idea - maybe Kawai should tool up to make replacement Steinway action parts from ABS. Would anyone buy them? Don Mannino RPT DonMannino@mediaone.net DMannino@kawaius.com
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