Tony Caught wrote: > > 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. Bosendorfer makes a big point of out this. They claim that they do not kiln dry any woods used in their instruments. > 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. What do you base this one Tony...? very curious... grin. > 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. Well,,, there is a certain amount of justification for this from within the science community... but just how far it actually goes I dont know. Vibration is said to affect wood creep... and on the surface of the explaintions it is hard to see why it wouldnt. However that would tend to simply help creep set in along the lines of the stress exerted upon the wood. Still the basic premise that vibration can effect wood physically there....still as yet this kind of thing has yet to have a satisfactory explanation...let alone anything resembling a proof. But then that kind of research takes money... > 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 > The thing I keep finding again and again is the significant number of times that our subjective observations seem to point in directions that dont fit with what we "know". This should point to the need to look into things from new and different angles.. to ask new questions.. If for no other reason then research is simply and in itself fascinating. -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC