Voicing

[Ron Nossaman]

>So wassup with Baldwin 6000 soundboards? Built with the same specs as humvee
>armor? Very stiff?
>
>Alan Barnard

Alan,
It's not just the Baldwin 6000 boards. Since Del got me interested in 
soundboard design a few years ago, I've discovered that most of the voicing 
I've been having to do through the years has been to disguise design 
problems. A soft resilient hammer with a reasonably good string scale and 
an efficient soundboard assembly produces more, better, and more uniform 
and balanced sound than I would have thought possible. That's with no 
voicing at all. So instead of spending half a day or more lacquering and/or 
needling, I'll spend maybe a half hour in touch up, with possibly a touch 
of lacquer in the last half dozen top hammers.   There isn't the knock the 
bark off the trees power and pain you're used to from a lot of pianos, but 
there is better dynamic range and the piano can actually be played softly 
instead of less loud. I think it's terrific, and folks that have played 
them typically like it too.

There's a ton of this topic in the new improved archives, if you don't weaken.

Ron N