soundboards improving with age? or what else?

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <rbrekne@broadpark.no>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: June 04, 2001 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: soundboards improving with age? or what else?


> > It's just that I can't afford to buy a new Steinway man!

I know what you mean. I can't afford a Steinway man either--I didn't even
know any were for sale. Shucks, I can't even afford a Steinway piano.


> I stick by my position that it is simply unknown as yet much about the
aging
> process for wood acoustics... mainly because there is practically no
studies done
> on the matter... and I doubt none at all relating to piano sound boards.
That many
> instruments gain quality due to replacement of said panels can just as
easily and
> sensibly be explained in other ways then to simply site some presumed
> significance of elasticity or presence of resins or what have you.

It is not really the changes that take place in wood due to 'age' as it is
the changes that take place within the wood structure as a result of applied
stresses over time. That is different from a piece of wood just set aside to
'age.' (And that is a whole other debate...)



> But as I said at the outset... show me the science, the research data that
supports
> your statements regarding why new wood is "better" then old. Until then
its just as
> much a matter of faith as any other position..... no matter how many
pianos of
> whatever quality you, I, or whoever has dealt with.

While I understand that nothing much I have to say will likely be changing
anybody's mind on this subject, I'd like to suggest that pianos such as
Andre's Bechstein (was it?) upright with a re-ribbed original soundboard
panel would sound about the same had the panel been replaced with one of the
same thickness and mass characteristic made of new wood. It is now the new
ribs that are supporting crown and forming the stress interface between the
soundboard assembly and the string plane.

I suspect the impedance relationship between the soundboard assembly and the
strings would be about the same in either case.

Regards,

Del