Soundboard Evaluation

[Farrell]

Comments interspersed below in the previous post:

Thanks for all your input.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: Soundboard Evaluation


>
> If the board has crown but there is no downbearing, doesn't that suggest
the
> plate is in the wrong place?

But there is no crown in the treble and high treble. It may have had more
crown in the tenor when originally strung (the piano was restrung sometime
in the past - but clearly no bridge work). Or the soundboard has the wrong
shape.

>  If the upper part of the board has no pressure
> on it, then it will sound weak.  There should be progressive bearing from
> bottom to top with the bass set minimally or even at zero.  Of course,
> without taking down the tension you don't know if the board has no
pressure
> on it or if it has flattened out under pressure?  I think you will have to
> take the tension off the board to see if the bearing was actually set at
> zero or if the board is collapsing under tension.  Measure the bridge
height
> relative to the struts, take the tension off and see if the distance
> changes.

I don't see where that would help - if the strings are straight as an arrow
(in the horizontal plane), how can they be affecting the height of the
soundboard. No downbearing means the strings are not pushing the board down.

>  If it doesn't, I would consider resetting the plate height if it
> doesn't create problems with clearence for the action.

We have a flat board in the treble. I should think this would at best result
in no improvement in this area.

> Otherwise, you will
> have to deteremine whether it is worth the cost of putting in a new board.

I think it is. But then it's not my money. I guess I'm looking for some ammo
to go to the client with. Unfortunately the guy I deal with at the hospital
is the maintenance dude. Pianos do not seem to be the focus of his work.

> David Love
>
> >From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> >Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> >To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> >Subject: Soundboard Evaluation
> >Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 22:51:26 -0400
> >
> >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
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>