Soundboard Evaluation

[Ron Nossaman]

>
> I am not quite sure why a compression board is said to be "damaged" (fiber
> compression damage) when in essence this damage is meaningless in as much as
> all one has to do is re-rib and reconfigure for a rib crowned assembly. 


Yep, that's all. When that three year old compression crowned board is damaged
enough to present reverse crown in the killer octave and no longer adequately
functional for the tone production the owner thought she bought, all the tech
has to do is rebuild the piano. No sweat, that panel can be saved. The strings
merely have to be taken off, and the tuning pins removed to just pull the plate
enough to somehow just knock the soundboard out without damaging it too much to
re-use. Then all the tech has to do is repair the panel damage incurred by the
removal, remove the old ribs without doing further damage, do a load and
deflection analysis from the stringing scale (original or improved) to
determine the cross sectional dimensions and feathering of the new ribs
(ideally, they won't be the same as the original ribs). Then all that's
necessary is to manufacture the ribs, fit them to the rim mortices in whatever
way he deems necessary (depends on who you talk to). Then he merely dries the
panel down some and glues the ribs on. After that, all he has to do is apply
finish to the new ribs and the bottom of the board, stripping it beforehand if
necessary. If any damage was done to the top of the board, it will probably
have to be stripped too. That's ok though, because he's saving the panel. Then
he'll merely glue the soundboard back in, finish the top, install the plate,
set the bearing (for which he may find it necessary to recap bridges if what is
there won't work with the newly crowned board), and restring. So far so good.
He'll probably just need to install new dampers too, since the old ones likely
won't seat right now. That should be about all that's required. Some 
differences between this and installing a new panel are the cost of the panel,
and the fact that you don't get to chose your grain angle and panel thickness
using the old board. 

But yea, that's all one has to do.

Ron N