>Can you share some details regarding this brace you "routinely" install >during soundboard replacement? Paul, The belly rail in a lot of pianos is un-braced through the top half of the scale. An overly flexible belly rail tends to bleed energy from the soundboard rather than reflecting it like it should. Adding a brace stiffens the rail and helps sustain. With the soundboard out and everything more easily reachable, I make up a beam of roughly similar cross sectional dimensions to those already there, usually of poplar if it's going to be painted black. I've used oak if that's what was there, and even old back posts from junked uprights. The brace goes about half way between the "tone collector" and the treble end - or wherever It looks to me like it will do the most good as a stiffener. It's butted against the belly rail, and fitted to the curve of the rim (or into the corner of the intersection between the treble fan brace and the rim). After scraping and sanding off the finish where the brace goes, I glue it in with either an epoxy and wood sanding dust mix, or Titebond. I'm not sure it makes any difference in performance, so it's more a matter of looks and working preference. Half inch dowels, top and sides, secure it after the glue has set up. Anyway, that's the way I do it. A brace to the long straight side is also a good idea, for the same reason. Ron N
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