Hi Folks Just got back from the Nordic convention where we had the pleasure of having Mr Steingręber himself on hand for a lecture on grand piano construction and design. In light of some of the disscussions we've had, both in favour of these pianos he makes, and about the general subject matter of soundboard construction... I simply had to ask him how he crowned his boards. His method is to dry the panel out to 4 % MC... or less if he can get it. Flat ribs are glued on as the panel is pressed into a curved caul. I of course mentioned that many feel this is a recipie for disaster and he simply smiled and said that if the process was handeled correctly there was no danger in overloading the panel at all. He said that stress on the panel was neccessary both from the standpoint of cross grain compression that comes from it taking on moisture, and from the standpoint of both tension and compression that occurs in the panel along the grain because of forcing it into the caul. And he underlined the importance of this last bit. I also noticed that in Europe in general..there is a tendency to use the word "tension" for the concept of stress. Seems to be necessary to make sure each time the word comes up what they are actually refering too. I did that of with Mr Steingręber and am pretty confident I got his meaning right. Just thought you all might like to know what his position was on this. I also asked him about the criticisms of CC panels, and Rib crowning as an alternative. His response can be summed up by saying that CC panels are quite dependable and have outstanding longevity characteristics as long as they are contrived with the proper care and knowhow. And concerning the Rib crowned panel, his position was that these were acoustically inferiour.... tho I didnt get time to really nail him down on a more specific reasoning for that opinion. We had two of his smaller grands on hand, a 163 and a 205. I have to say I was very impressed with these. Amazing bass for such a small piano in the case of the 163. Very much in the Steinway tradition soundwise. Yet the sustain and clarity in the treble on the 205 was superiour to most any piano I have run into. They simply sang. Perhaps a bit of a lack of definition in the upper bass section when power playing with big chords... but thats the only finger I could put on a down side. Cheers RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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