Soundboard Evaluation

[jolly roger]

At 10:39 PM 6/14/01 -0500, you wrote:
>> Piano sounds a
>>bit weak and has a bad killer octave area. I measured for downbearing with
>>the goofy little three point brass thingee. Absolutely ZERO downbearing on
>>the whole long bridge. Everywhere. Zero. Never saw that before. 
>
Hi Terry,
            Those three legged thingees tell you next to nothing,  since
you seem to be doing a fair bit of rebuilding type work.  Invest in a
compound bearing gauge and learn how to measure the defection angles.  This
way you will have a true picture of what is happening across the bridge.
Combine this with the simple string test between each rib, so you have a
good idea of where the board is at with regards to crown.  Couple this to
your hearing and you will have a better evaluation before you start.

Since some parts of the board has crown, some improvement MAY be gained by
lowering the plate, but I would not bet on it lasting.   The question you
have to ask your self, if after all this effort is it going to be worth it?

A cheap and nasty improvement can some times be made by grinding down the
dulex bars if the piano has them.  But beware, this also may not last.

A bad board is a bad board period.

Now I will crawl under my rock, flame suit on.

Regards Roger.