>It occurs to me that the job of technician called upon to estimate damage in >these cases is really estimating how much of the usable life of that >instrument has been taken away, as well as what would be required to bring >it back to it's original condition. ------------ >Brian Trout This is the part of what I was talking about that I was interested in. Are the cracks worth "fixing" from a "diminished function" standpoint? I would think not, unless you can hear evidence of the crack. That makes it primarily cosmetic, and as such, is it worth tearing the piano down and patching? Should we be at least as concerned with the possible structural damage that came in the package with the crack? I would think so, and while that's not always as visible and obvious as a soundboard crack, it's a heck of a lot more important under the "diminished function" heading. In the case of Diane's earthquake damage, I'll have to concede her point. A piano dancing around in a moving building is another thing altogether from a piano diving off a stationary truck. It's outside my experience, but understandable. Shear stress in spruce panels will be different under repeated shock than when steadily or momentarily applied. I can see how this might also result in proportionately more damage to the soundboard than to the structure, where dropping a piano off a truck is just the opposite, in my experience. It just seemed to me that "is the soundboard cracked" isn't exactly looking at the more potentially nasty repercussions. I'll go away now. Ron N
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