Hi Terry, As you say, such tools and measurements are of more interest to researchers and those who design the boards. Let's say you are interested in piano design and you come across a couple of Steinways, same model, built 50 years apart. One sounds great, the other one doesn't. They look similar enough. The scale is the same. Both have the same amount of crown, the ribs look similar, even the grain is similar looking. One could simply say: "The wood is different, they don't make them out of that good old wood any more." On the other hand, what if the acoustic difference is due to soundboard profile changes (intended or not)? Maybe they have changed the thickness profile in the intervening years and that is the primary cause of the tonal difference. You would not know this unless you measured. One can save a lot of time by comparing things that others have already taken time to build. People have done a lot of work measuring the thickness profile of the plates on old Italian violins without any intention of replacing them. Things can be learned by measuring and comparing. When I saw the tool I described, the violin maker was trying to assess the potential tone quality of an old violin that had no bridge or strings on it. To save himself the time of fitting a new bridge and stringing up the instrument, he did a quick check of the thickness profile and told the customer that the violin would probably have a rather bright sound. I have no idea how accurate his statement was, but he may be able to draw such conclusions. Vladan ========================= Terry wrote: ... But that begs the question: why would anyone need to know the panel thickness? Seems to me that in some situations one may be curious of the original panel thickness if one were replacing the soundboard, but then one would have the luxury of measuring with the panel out and could use destructive techniques if need be. But what would you use that info for if you were not going to replace the soundboard? Terry Farrell __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com
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