soundboards

[Cy Shuster]

I went to the Open House at the North Bennet Street School in Boston in 
November, and was astonished to find that those arched violin tops are 
*carved* into that shape, not steamed or otherwise bent as are soundboards. 
A slab of wood about an inch thick is laboriously scraped down to about 2mm 
thickness, in a doubly-arched curve.

--Cy Shuster--
Bluefield, WV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Mannino" <donmannino@comcast.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 12:55 AM
Subject: Re: soundboards


> From what I have heard, old violin tops do not generally fail structurally 
> from compression and collapse (at least well made ones).  They are made 
> completely differently, and they work very differently, than piano 
> soundboards.
>
> Don Mannino RPT