Glass soundboard

[Sarah Fox]

Hi Cy,

> Now, carbon fiber might be interesting...

Indeed!  I'm eagerly anticipating one of y'all getting into a radically 
experimental mood -- especially one of you soundboard gurus.

Carbon fiber is being used very successfully for construction of the lower 
register string instruments and (I'm pretty sure) for guitars.  They're 
still working on a carbon fiber viola and violin.  Of course there may never 
really be a carbon fiber violin, since the design parameters of that 
instrument are so rigid.

I suspect the chief complaint about the carbon fiber piano soundboard will 
be the same as that for the glass soundboard -- that there's too much 
sustain -- that it's too efficient.  As I've suggested before, there are 
many ways to make the piano "perform" better, but at some point, the piano 
no longer sounds like a piano (in the inefficient sense that we all know and 
love).  The steel soundboard piano is a case in point.  A piece composed for 
a modern piano may not sound "right" on a piano of the future, much the same 
way that a piece composed for an ancient piano often has problems with 
regard to the modern piano (e.g. with regard to damping/pedaling).

I might suggest, in the interim, that newer, more efficient soundboard 
materials might be made less efficient (and more "wood-like") by damping 
them with other materials.  For instance, how about constructing a steel 
soundboard with an inner and outer skin and a thin core of tar-laden felt?

As for the glass soundboard...  I wonder what 50 years of age would do to 
it...  Glass does become brittle with age.  Even if the sound of the thing 
appeals to some folks, it will surely change, just as surely as wood.  If 
I'm not mistaken, it will lose much of its flexibility with age, so bass 
response will be sacrificed somewhat.  At the same time, the ear-shattering 
treble response will still be just fine.  As the glass continues to harden, 
it will become brittle, so there will come a point that it might explode 
under the downbearing -- probably during a very loud chord!  While this 
might be very "impressive" in concert <chuckle>, I wouldn't want to be the 
person at the piano!  ;-)

Peace,
Sarah