Belly rail crown - Why???

[Tony Caught]

Hi Ron,

When I was in China TRYING to build pianos MY way I noticed after too long
that the ribs on the piano were of different heights and I mean different.
So I chased it up and asked the production manager why the ribs were all
different heights and how were they actually making them.

His reply was simple.

'We tried to make them you way but it was to hard so I had a chat with the
worker from the Army factory who makes the ribs and he said that in the Army
factory they just plane the face (boardside) in a shallow V then round the
point of the V off.' The thickness doesn't matter.  The production manager
said to the worker 'The Army piano sounds OK so lets do it that way, "lou"
Caught will be pleased that we are improving his piano for him.'

Tony Caught
Darwin Australia
caute@bigpond.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: Belly rail crown - Why???

>       At any rate the best judge of that kind of subject determination in
> my mind woud be the guys in the factory who were so familiar with the old
> design compared to the new one that there opinion would carry some real
weight

I've always had a problem with this thinking. When would the guys in the
factory working with the old ways ever get any experience with new ways to
refine their opinions? What you will most likely get here is "This is the
way we've always done it, so this way is best." And isn't that what we
hear, for the most part?

Regards,

Ron N

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