Its not just the thickness that can ruin the tone.Any single step of the design and installation process can be wrong and the tone can be dead. Two points:
One, i'd get the old board back. 1/2" is on the thick side. Thats usually raw panel thickness, so they either didn't have the ability to thin a panel or didn't care to take the time to.
Two, these older boards are not modern compression boards, they had to go with the inferior method of adding an artificial crown. But more important than that, they have to be installed in a special way to create tension along the grain. 99% of rebuilders don't know that, let alone how to do it.
-chris
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Chernobieff Piano Restorations
Inventor of Inertia Touch Wave (ITW)
Advanced Resonant Compression Engineered Soundboards (ARCHES)
865-986-7720 (text only please)
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-10-2025 09:46
From: Parker Leigh
Subject: Soundboard Thickness
Anyone know what the maximum thickness (middle) of a ca. 1875 Broadwood Superior Parlor Grand 8' 3" should be? Rebuilder seems to have made the board almost
12mm thick. Tone is dead.
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Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
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