[pianotech] Soundboard Analysis

[Ron Nossaman]

On 6/22/2011 7:17 PM, Encore Pianos wrote:

> About a year ago, I bought a Crownulator from Jude Reveley.

It's a fine idea in concept, but presumes a more perfect world than I 
work in. As in so many other aspects of this work, the number of decimal 
points generated is over appreciated and usually at the expense of a 
broader picture. A string, rim to rim, shows me the contour of the 
crown, rather than the calculated radius at an arbitrary point. One look 
with the string will tell me as much or more than three or four 
Crownulator measurements. "Flat" boards are hardly ever dead flat, which 
a string shows immediately, as it shows an "S" curve, without multiple 
measurements and calculations.

I can then compare these with the string bearing measurements above each 
crown "measurement" for a workable picture of how the soundboard is 
doing structurally.

Ron N