Acoustic Memory

[Tony Caught]

Hi Greg & list,

What Rob is saying is (in my opinion) that timber, in particular timber used
in musical instruments, improves in tone over the first few years of its
life after being played.

I know that you can change the molecular structure of steel when it is
stroked or magnetised and that heat at different temperatures give you
different degrees of hardness, also depends on how the steel is cooled so
why not timber too.

Just like a new violin of good quality should be 'played in' before it is
sold to further enhance the tone (or prove the tone is not as good) which
ever way it turns out.
Likewise an acoustic guitar always seems to improve over the first 6,7
years.

 It is my impression that the tone of a modern new piano remains the same
for the first few years then in pianos starts to deteriorate, slowly in
quality pianos and faster in others. Yet in the older pianos where the
soundboard timber was open air seasoned (as against the modern kiln drying)
does not deteriorate to the same degree and possibly not at all except for
grain compression problems.

It is my opinion that a soundboard that is crowned by ribs only will last
longer in quality of tone than any other and that if the board is also open
air seasoned, it will last even longer. Also that a board made that way will
improve in tone after it has been played for some time.

It is also my opinion that if a piano is not played for a number of years,
that the quality of tone will weaken but will return with play over a period
of time.

36 years of tuning pianos give a person observational value only. I am going
on my recollections of a period of time when I was tuning pianos in stable
climatic condition, but, now that I have been living in the tropics for some
18 years, I am denied these observations.  Sometimes when I go down south on
holidays (and tune a few friends pianos) I can hear again that sweet tone
that can come from piano with a fitted with a soundboard made the right way.

Regards

Tony


----- Original Message -----
From: Greg Newell <gnewell@ameritech.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2001 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: Acoustic Memory


> Rob and list,
>     This is an interesting theory. The first thing that comes to mind
> about "training the board" is that you're assuming that the frequency
> never changed over those few billions times the hammer comes in contact
> with the string. Even with a very fast repetition we are still talking
> about a long period of time and the piano is sure to go at least a
> little out of tune. What will that do to your theory?
>
> Greg
>
> Robert Goodale wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I was recently having a personal conversation with Eric
> > Frankson from this list, (hello Erick), regarding the
> > current thread on sound boards, new vs old and improvement
> > with age.  During this chat something kind of odd occurred
> > to me.  Perhaps this is a pretty big stretch but I suppose
> > there could be some merit that warrants discussion.  The
> > concept is what might be appropriately called "Acoustic
> > Memory".
> >
> > Rob Goodale, RPT
> > Las Vegas, NV
>
> --
> Greg Newell
> Greg's Piano Forté
> 12970 Harlon Ave.
> Lakewood, Ohio 44107
> 216-226-3791
> mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>
>