> All the discussion about crowned ribs, panels and such led me to a question: > Why is there a need for crown in a soundboard? > If one would use a flat panel with adequately proportioned ribs, such as to > provide the necessary stiffness of the panel and resistance to the down > bearing of the strings, wouldn't the soundboard work just as well? > Yes, it would probably be bent in a reversed crown, but I really don't see a > problem with that for now. > > Regards, > > Calin Tantareanu For that matter, do you need bearing? I don't know why an entirely different dynamic balance between strings and soundboard than we're used to couldn't work quite well. Wayne Stewart's piano, for instance, has neither bearing, nor crown, and sounds very nice to some. My ear says the tone falls apart at above moderate volume levels. The kilo or two of brass agraffes on the bridges is, I think, the only reason it works at all, and if he'd put in some cutoff bars and substantially beef up the ribbing, the tone would hold together much better at higher attack levels. Then you'd have a no crown no bearing piano that works, but still sounds somewhat different than we're used to, which isn't necessarily bad. Ron N
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