Sounding Board
The sounding board acts as the “speaker” of the piano. It picks up the vibration of the strings (via the bridges), with a life span determined mostly by the fluctuation and level of humidity over the decades. A lot of times the board can be repaired by re-glueing the sounding board ribs and shimming, but sometimes sounding boards need to be replaced. When we replace sounding boards we use Alaskan Sitka Spruce that we carefully prepare.
Repairing or replacing the sounding board is part of the rebuilding / restoration process.
Here we are re-glueing the original sounding board to the sounding board ribs using special clamps.
These clamps are used to hold the sounding board to the rib while the glue dries.
Here you can see a repaired sounding board on a small grand.
This particular sounding board on a Steinway grand could not be saved so we removed it and manufactured a new one.
Here you can see the new sounding board on this Steinway.
New sounding board and bridge installed.
Repairing or replacing the sounding board is part of the rebuilding / restoration process.