negative curved soundboard

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Ron

Grin... I have to scratch my head as well at the restoration of that old
TH... for exactly the reason you state.  They re-new just about
everything... even replace the cracked pinblock... but the soundboard
gets "jacked up to the appropriate height".... !  like its going to stay
there.  Thats Europe for you tho... soundboard is sacred. If you change
such an old one, you are a blasphemer. No ifs ands or butts about it.

I have no problem with the idea of restoring the thing per sé however.
But keeping a dead board.... I just do not get it.   Ok ok... I am the
first to fly to the defense of anyones subjective rights... but thats
not whats being declared here.  These cases are all the same.  The only
way I can see using the old panel to get anything like what the original
builder got involves removing the old panel and re-ribbing.  And if you
don't do that then what defense is there is of using the old panel means
leaving it as is. Dirt and all for that matter.

Sigh...
RicB


    Hi all,

    The other interesting question is why did they go to so much trouble
    recreating the legs and lyre, while they fudged up a dead
    soundboard. The result would have been more musically credible had
    they fudged  the legs and finished the piano black while while
    diverting work  towards replacing the board. I guess replacing the
    board wasn't part  of their skill set.

    They might have done better had they spent some of their website
    development funds to actually learn the craft of rebuilding.

    It also seems amazing that someone would spend so much time
    restoring  something that was clearly just a piece of trash to begin
    with, and
    so for away from the current best tone building practice.

    Ron O.