I've heard plenty of new soundboards that are "thin" "tinny" and "meager" sounding, in many ways, compared to rich, resonant old ones! It is a FACT that old wood is harder, and therefore transmits vibrations better (a basic law of physics ) etc.. Old soundboards, IF properly recrowned, can definitely beat out some ( if not most ) new ones. ( Which was not, obviously, done in this case! ) As for the Chickering inconsistencies: it is my understanding that "widow Chickering " owned the company at this point, while the staff sort of "ran wild" regarding design and construction. It wasn't until Armstrong ( of American Piano ) bought the firm in 1909, that some uniformity, and adoption of contemporary practices, returned to production. Thump --- Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote: > > > Antique wood. Yeah, what a hoot. P.S. Please enlighten all the unfortunate souls who are paying pay top dollar for 500 year old church beams to make violins from, that they're wasting their money. I'm sure they'll be grateful! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396546091
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