new ribs and treble trouble

[Richard Brekne]

antares wrote:

> Ok my friend,
>
> As you know, we (grand Piano) have quite a lot of experience with 
> ribbing old boards.
> I am not a sound board guy, so I am not going into discussion about 
> the technical/mechanical aspect.
> What I do know however is this :
> Usually, when you put new ribs (no spare ribs ok) on an old board, the 
> overall result will be that of a stronger board, in other words: it 
> sounds more powerful and more supple.
> However, if there was a problem with the treble in the old board, that 
> same problem will re-appear, and that is kind of nightmare -ish.
> So before you start doing this, make sure that there is no - real - 
> existing treble trouble.

Agreed... 100 %.  No good using a buckled or warped panel.  Tho one 
fellow I know carefully parts old panels and reconstructs new ones from 
suitable pieces.  His belief in the acoustic properties of old wood is 
rather stronger then most folks I deem.

My point is that there is a lot of old good soundboard wood just being 
burnt up, and this stuff is really quite usefull.  Its not nearly as 
difficult to process as some would have it, and regardless of whether or 
not you believe it yields some characteristic sound only old wood can 
yeild, it certainly can be used to make wonderful sounding soundboards. 
Since its basically free, aside from the labour (which is mostly waiting 
time) to remove it and the ribbing... I fail to see any real downsides.

> In that case, it would be much better to install a totally new 
> soundboard and maybe also a new treble bridge. Then there is of course 
> the trouble with old scaling : if the old scale was faulty, then I 
> assume there is not much you can do about it, except putting in a 
> brand new frame, or altering the frame, like Ron Overs does.

There is nothing really to keep you from using an old panel in a new 
design. Both ribs and bridge can be removed.  The only thing an old 
panel seemingly can not be used for is a compression crowned soundboard, 
as the panel is already maxed out  in that regard.  But if you are 
installing a rib crowned board, its just dandy.

>
> It remains a tricky business, and especially so with old Steinways.


Well.... grin... thats why they pay dem guys the big bucks now aint it ?  :)

> I have quite some experience with old Steinways and they usually come 
> out pretty good.

I'm sure so... Arnold is a very capable rebuilder what knows what he's 
up to.

> nevertheless, If I had the choice between a nice new Steinway B versus 
> a nice old Steinway B, my choice would definitely be the new one.
>
Not me.... I'd choose each for its own sound.  Lets face it... some new 
B's suck a rock.  Heck.. even the most consistant sound around (Yamaha) 
has really huge variations in pianosound from instrument to instrument.  
If any particular old B sounds better then any particular new one... 
then so be it.  We have two C's at the UiB, and you liked the older of 
the two when you were here, and that was just after the best voicer in 
Norway had dressed up the newer one, and inexperienced me did what I 
could on the old one. And just about everyone who runs into those two 
pianos agree, and really have since the day the newer one was 
purchased.  I take one by one myself. 

> André
>
Cheers Andre
RicB