Piano tone changing with age

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <rbrekne@broadpark.no>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: June 05, 2001 12:22 AM
Subject: Re: Piano tone changing with age


> Sounds very reasonable.... course we also are dealing with exterior forces
most
> notably the climatic conditions.

True. But, while we can't always predict changes in the climate surrounding
the piano, we can predict how the piano will respond to those changes. If
not with absolute accuracy, at least with general and predictable
principles.



> I note in your reply to the wood resin post you declare that whole
thinking in
> error. I wonder if you might explain further how that is in error.

Resin is certainly found in spruce and pine. But it is only in semi-liquid
form in the sapwood of the tree. It becomes solidified over time (as it is
in heartwood) and when exposed to heat (as it becomes in sapwood). Like it
or not, the wood used in soundboards today are generally kiln-dried --
heated -- and any resin found in any of the sapwood that might end up in a
soundboard will have been solidified in the process.

The implication of this concept is that the wood cells continue to feed on
the resin found in the wood and that in so doing their physical
characteristic is altered. I.e., in cut and processed wood, the cells are
still alive and changing as a result of that life. They are not--dead trees
are made up of dead cells--and they do not continue to feed on anything.
Even in the living tree it is the living ray cells--no I don't remember
their technical name -- that exude resin, the dead heartwood cells do not
eat the stuff.

Regards,

Del