Do you dry the ribs, along with the board, prior to gluing ?

[Richard Brekne]

Greg Newell wrote:

    I myself am in the opposite camp wherein I believe that there is
    cellular destruction of the old wood and therefore due for
    replacement. My reasons follow that of which we've heard for years
    now on this list. This of course is assuming a CC board assembly.
    Your thoughts?


Hi again Greg...

Saw this particular quote and comment and thought I would share a couple 
thoughts.  Certainly as a CC board an old panel which has been weakened 
due to compression set will be difficult to make work as a CC board.  At 
least more difficult then a new panel.  The degree with which the panel 
has compression strength left is the determinant here.  Feasibly one 
could de-rib such a panel, dry it out and use it again in some kind of 
compression reliant assembly with success.

Using it in an RC & S assembly on the other hand should be quite alright 
as Del stated some years back.  I believe there is some truth to what 
Thump posted about old wood... and as a result I would think such an 
assembly would sound a bit different then an assembly using a brand new 
board.  But perhaps any difference is marginal after all.

I am kind of skeptical to using phrases like "cellular destruction" 
myself...  not because there is anything inherently untruthfully about 
the phrase... but because it conveys a sense of the wood being rendered 
totally useless as a soundboard... which clearly is not the case.

I also believe the whole compression set argumentation is well 
overstated. Not meaning to deny it is a significant factor in the life 
of a soundboard ... but I do find that there are very many old pianos 
that have very nice sound by any standards left in them.  Pure 
statistics leads me away from accepting compression reliant panels as 
having a built in self destruct mechanism.  Treat them well... give them 
a reasonably nice climate... and they will hold up nicely for a very 
long time indeed.

I know there are many on piano tech that disagree.  I also note that the 
vast majority of pianos made today rely on significant degrees of 
compression in there soundboards. These companies, at least many of them 
I believe... are well aware of all the issues we discuss and their 
significance.

Cheers
RicB