I dont think my piano is worth anythingthe soundboard is cracked. Piano sound board repairing cracks the sound board is a five eighths inch thick wooden board in the back of the piano. So that it will vibrate freely, a sounding board is necessarily a very thin panel, usually from 316 to 38 of an inch thick. More generally, any hard surface can act as a sound board. Soundboard cracks are glued and set as needed, and bridge repairs are made. A cracked sounding board will limit the value somewhat. Greg nicolett forbidden to face the natural light mvt 1 conducted by brian kaufman. Like the speaker of a radio, a pianos sounding board is a vibrating diaphragm. Graymarket pianos and cracked soundboards pianobuyer. Can a digital keyboard ever hope to match the glories of the acoustic piano. When the strings are linked, or coupled, to the soundboard by the means of the. As the string vibrates back and forth, it displaces the air, creating sound waves. Across the grain, spruce is actually stronger than the same weight of.
Years of vibration and climate changes can cause the soundboard s pieces to split at the seams. The sound board is a five eighths inch thick wooden board in the back of the piano. The boards themselves may also crack along the grain of the wood. Older instruments, more than 50 years, have some sort of sounding board deterioration. On the back of it, it has one inch ribs which stabilize it by running against the grain of the sound board. Compared to the 810mm thickness of a modern piano soundboard, that of the. Epoxy soundboard crack repair pianotech piano technicians guild. In this article, i trace some of the history of laminated soundboard technology, then. Evenmore so by playing on it consistantly, you will only make the cracks worse. For this reason, a crack in the soundboard reduces the soundboard s ability to amplify the vibrations of the strings only in relation to how much of the surface area the crack reduces the vibrating area of the board. Hodgson mill cracked wheat cereal, 18ounce pack of 6, hearthealthy hot breakfast cereal for a wholesome start to your morning, enjoy with fresh berries. Also for upright pianos, check for signs of water damage along the bottom edge.
A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. Shimming produces a crack between the shim and the soundboard right at the. So youve noticed the soundboard of your piano has a crack. Perhaps it looks less like a smooth, machined piece of carpentry and more like a freight pallet. The sounding board is the most important single part in the piano because if the board is bad, you do not have a piano until there has been a major repair job. Thus there persists a common notion that a crack in the wood must in some. As a longtime reader and supporter of international piano, i have come to value its coverage aimed primarily at those playing, teaching and appreciating acoustic pianos increasingly, however, i have noted a shift to embrace. But if it has cracks in the sound board, than it is better to leave it for a museum.
Solid spruce soundboards swell and shrink with seasonal changes in humidity and, over time, can develop cracks. Soundboard cracks cbh carey beebe harpsichords australia. No real music can come out of a conventional piano except through the sounding board. The string alone, however, has a very small surface area, which means that it cannot displace a large amount of air, making it difficult to hear. Piano soundboard restoration is an exacting and timed honed process. The soundboard is what allows the piano to project its sound. Do i need to be very worried if i find cracks in the sound board of a very old piano. In an upright piano, the sound board is a large vertical plate at the back of the instrument. A piano s soundboard is one of the most important pieces on a piano. The cracks will expand and only cause you trouble if you cannot have a strictly controlled and sterile environment. The nostalgia of owning a piano from liszts time sounds tempting. High quality woods are used in the best instruments for sound quality and. Cracks in a piano soundboard are common and often are not sufficient reason to. Whether you have a grand piano or an upright piano, fixing cracks is one of the most common soundboard repairs.
A new soundboard is custom tapered and fitted into the specific piano. If the wood is not dried properly it can lead to warping and cracking. Cracked soundboards piano tuning in edmonton daniels piano. Brigham larson, registered piano technician, dispels the myth that a broken soundboard always means a piano is no longer playable. When an original soundboard needs restoration, we evaluate the board to ensure structural integrity, hand sand it and repair any damage utilizing our special methods. An example is when someone strikes a tuning fork and holds. If you open up the lid of either your upright or grand piano and look down, you will see a shiny piece of wood that runs the down the back or the bottom of the instrument. This drying out process eventually could lead to a split occurring along the grain somewhere on the soundboard. Repairing or replacing a pianos soundboard bradfield piano. Soundboards vary in size depending on how large the piano. In the case of the piano, the string begins to vibrate when it is struck by the hammer. This indicates that the piano could have been in a flood in the past, which could in turn cause rustiness on strings and sounding board cracks.