Soundboard Evaluation

[Wilsons]

I say leave the soundboard alone.  Downbearing zeroed out is fine w that
much crown.  The difference in tone is probably due to minor differences in
the bed.  Fix the regulation, including strike point, and it should improve
markedly.  I'd lay my bets that the answer is in the action regulation and
voicing.  But you'll get all points of view.  Some of us will replace
soundboards at the drop of a hat, and others don't like to do it.  Just be
sure you have accurately diagnosed the problem before getting the customer
to spend big $$$ only to find out it still hasn't solved the problem!  

Wally Wilson, RPT

At 10:51 PM 6/14/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Looking for a second (or third!) opinion on a soundboard. This is the 5' 4"
>Knabe grand that I just finished installing a keybed in. I just flipped it
>over and put the action in (it actually fit in - yeaaaa!). 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. A little bit
>of bearing on the bass bridge. Checked for crown with the string. Excellent
>even 3/32" crown roughly centered under long bridge for the two tenor
>sections, about 1/16" to 1/32" crown for the lower part of the treble
>section, and zero crown for the upper treble section (exactly where the
>killer octave area starts!) and the high treble section.
>
>I'm gonna have one more go with the owner (a hospital - my guy who makes the
>piano decisions is the dude you call to have a light bulb changed or if you
>get stuck in the elevator) about rebuilding. I need to decide how heavily I
>am going to push a new soundboard. The board has no cracks. I had to glue
>the tenor end of the long bridge back to the soundboard a few year ago
>because it was buzzing.
>
>I clearly feel a new soundboard is needed to bring the piano up to its
>potential. But, playing devil's advocate, most of the board has good crown -
>why not just recap the bridges and put in appropriate downbearing - although
>admittedly this would be tough in the high treble where there is already a
>flat board - although hard to measure the little bit of crown that
>would/should be there.
>
>I say if the plate is coming out for new bridge caps, give it a new board
>also - otherwise they will likely have a very lackluster bla piano.
>Waddayasay???
>
>Terry Farrell
>