Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum who makes the best replacement soundboard?

rd?? I think I know who but what the heck??

Please clarify your question Paulo.

Curry, if you need a new soundboard, who do you call?

Ciresa is the firm many very well respected piano makers get their spruce from (including my own piano).

I imagine they do quite a good bit of business with many rebuilders as well.

Here is their website:


Ciresa Soundboards

-AKindWord

Les Pianos Andre Bolduc,Inc.

AKW, Paulo means custom made completed sounboards, not wood stock.

Curry, you know what I mean. I've been using André"s pinblocks for a long time and his soundboards are immaculate. He hand picks the trees. Him and Del should get together. (then again maybe they already have) Paulo

Paulo,

We prefer to make our own for each specific piano.

Del

I own a SS A Hamburg 1911; I would like to replace the Soundboard; wich one, Bolduc or Ciresa? What is the magical spark that makes a wood more conform than another for a SS? and...will we find back the SS sound with a new soundboard (that is not replaced by SS industry)?

Good wood is good wood.

Wherever you find it.

Try Roseland Piano in Oregon.

True enough. I wood add that bad wood is bad wood, as well. I am surprised you left that out, Jolly.

Bolduc and Ciresa and Sitka etc etc all have the potential to work well, but they all work a bit differently. Same with useing sugar pine vs spruce ribs. I have a preference baised on my experience, but a conscientious rebuilder who knows what he is doing will eventually get any of these woods to work. By the same token, a rebuilder who doesn't know what he is doing will make a bad sounding piano with the best quality parts.
These woods have different properties of stiffness, density, etc that cause problems if a piano was designed with white spruce in mind, with sugar pine ribs, and the replacement board is a faithful reproduction, but uses sitka for the board, and for the ribs.

I am a sitka fan, call me crazy!

I have used Adirondak, warmer to my ear.

Specifically they have different strength and working characteristics. As many a manufacturer has discovered when switching from one to another without examining their process to be sure they are not stressing the wood beyond it capabilities.

Sitka spruce, for example, has relatively high perpendicular-to-grain compression and tensile strength. This comes in handy when the panel is used in pure compression-crowned soundboard construction. Several companies have discovered (the hard way) that it is unwise to switch to either Eastern spruce (Bolduc) or mountain spruce (Ciresa) without making some compensation for this difference.

(For the lover of one or the other, please note that I am not saying one is particularly better than the other. They are just different. The variations in perpendicular-to-grain compression strength and tensile strength can easily be compensated for by lightly crowning the ribs and backing off on the extremely low moisture content required for pure compression-crowned construction. This reduces both the peak level of compression and the potential level of tension the soundboard panel is likely develop. Well done, the tonal character of each should be virtually identical.}

Del