floating the soundboard

[Stéphane Collin]

Hi John and all.

"... Treble... echoing round the rim..." is exactly how I would describe the
sound on the floating treble pianos I crossed.
Also, the amount and the aesthetic quality of the after ring is amazing on
those (of course, partly because of the smaller dampers, but even with
dampers lift, the reaction of the whole belly + strings to a single note in
treble can be, well, magical or rather common).
I suppose that this has to do with the fact that the energy input into the
treble is not kept for long sustain, but more generously spent in the belly,
leaving the sustain thing to the after ring things.  Does this make sense ?

Stéphane Collin.

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of John Delacour

When I put my special 
soundboard in one of these, a 5'2" grand, I left the treble floating 
and also floated the bass for about a foot.  The treble on this piano 
is very special and gives the impression of echoing round the rim, 
but the my soundboard is not standard at all, so it's hard to say if 
this was a characteristic of the original.

On Viennese Bösendorfer grands I have come across, the whole front 
edge of the soundboard is floating, heavily arched with a maple bar.

JD