Soundboard Resonances and the Wogram Article

[David Love]

Perhaps the issue has more to do with power.  As I hear it, there are two
kinds of power from a piano.  One has to do with attack the other has to do
with a sort of cumulative resonance that occurs when, for example, you play
a large chord at the forte level and get what can almost be described as a
swelling or full orchestral resonance.  For me, the danger in making sure
that the board can't be overdriven at any level is that you run the risk of
reducing the power such that you can't get that full orchestral resonance
and the piano can sound a little too subdued, light, restricted, or whatever
you want to call it, and/or, you diminish the level of attack.  While that
may be an issue of what we are used to hearing, choices can be made along
this continuum, presumably, and we might find ourselves needing to respond
to the particular requirements of a pianist or concert hall.  The question
is whether that's a choice that should be or can be made and, if so, what
are the trade offs and how would you approach a piano that you wanted to be
sure delivered the maximum power.    

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 1:46 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Soundboard Resonances and the Wogram Article



>To many people, maybe to most, that is a desirable
> thing.  If there is a criticism, and to many this would not be a
criticism,
> it is that the boards can feel overcontrolled, that they might lack a
> certain freedom especially at the forte end.  Sometimes you want the board
> to growl a bit at the upper end of the dynamic range.  This type of effect
> can sometimes be difficult to achieve on these boards.  

Ah, I see. That's what I've always thought was the board being 
driven beyond it's capacity, and is one of the things I 
intentionally try to eliminate if possible. It's probably 
accepted just because it's often there in conventional boards. 
It's what we're used to. It happens at different dynamic 
ranges with different seasons and accompanying RH% ranges 
within the same piano. It's an artifact of the same condition 
that brings us the killer octave and the treble dink. I 
consider it a defect.


>Now maybe that's the
> case with any new and successful board.  But that's not been my listening
> experience.  What I am trying to put my finger on is whether placing the
> bridge exactly in the middle of the panel with the addition of a full
cutoff
> bar doesn't contribute to that phenomenon by virtue of how the resonances
> otherwise set up, as the Wogram article suggests, when the placement is
not
> exactly on center.  Judging from the diagram and the movement in the bass
> corner of that panel, I have to assume that the piano he measured did not
> have a cutoff bar of any type.  So, if so, is there any merit to placing
the
> bridge slightly off center by adding a smaller cutoff.  I'm not sure the
> question can be answered, but it's an honest one without any particular
> agenda.       
> 
> David Love

I don't know what merit that would be. Trying to build a board 
that overdrives into chaos at a certain predictable dynamic 
level in different parts of the scale and controlling it from 
one board to the next is way outside anything I'm interested 
in pursuing, or will ever be capable of if I were. Someday, 
with composite soundboards in a new production piano, maybe - 
if it's really deemed necessary and there are a number of 
identical pianos to play with, but in a remanufacturing 
situation, using wood, in any number of different models of 
piano, I'd call this an absolute impossibility to reliably 
control. In any case, I'd rather see it gone altogether so the 
piano will have functional tone production capabilities 
through it's entire dynamic range - if and as possible.

Ron N
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