I’ve been wading through a book from 1916 called “A Treatise on the Art of Pianoforte Construction” where the author gives an overview of piano making. Possibly taking the lead from violin and harpsichord makers which had existed for centuries, the soundboard material utilizes tone wood made from spruce due to its combination of elasticity for vibration and strength. Well over 100 years ago, spruce became the popular wood of choice for piano soundboards. This vibration from the board allows us to hear the piano, without which the string vibration would be but a whisper. If you think of a skin of a drum where the rim is attached around the edges, so too the piano soundboard vibrates freely in the middle and the edges are affixed to the rim of the piano. While we casually talk about the soundboard being an amplifier, technically speaking an amplifier ADDS energy to multiply the sound source whereas a soundboard inherently transforms and radiates energy into sound waves. It’s the job of the soundboard to act as a transducer, transforming the vibrations of the strings into audible waves of sound. The vibration of the strings, in turn transfers the vibration through the bridge to the soundboard. When doing research on pianos, what role does the soundboard play? After a key is struck on the piano, the hammer is activated to strike against the strings.
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May 2023
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