Stuart Piano

[Ron Nossaman]

>Sorry, that wasn't very clear... was it?  I meant a wide board and very long
>too -9'3" I think - can't remember seeing a cut-off bar either. The ribs are
>short in height, and a bit thick. I have real concerns about the longevity
>of these pianos especially if there is little or no crown!
>
>Cheers
>Mark Bolsius

Let's do a general rib nomenclature alert first, since this seems to come 
up occasionally. If we use "long" and "short" for the end to end "length" 
of ribs, "thick" and "thin" for the "height", and "wide" and "narrow" for 
the "width", when someone says the ribs are short, thin and wide, there's a 
minimum of confusion - theoretically.

I'm not so sure there's a longevity concern here. If there is in fact 
little to no crown in these pianos, then the intended soundboard impedance 
isn't produced by high compression levels in the panel, but rather by the 
multitude of ribs. If the  panel isn't under high compression levels, the 
assembly doesn't have the built in self destruct mechanism of a compression 
crowned board. If there's no unnaturally high strain being placed on 
materials incapable of supporting it in the long term, the life of the 
structure should be comparatively long.

Ron N