Steinway D 411101 Soundboard Built

when the are glued to the soundboar

Building a quality new soundboard requires a fair amount of time and wood working skills. The process is started by carefully fitting the ribs to the cut outs in the piano rim. The rib thickness and width is duplicated from the original board. The ribs are then have a radious cut in them and are feathered on the edges.

After the soundboard panel has been meticously fit into the inside of the rim, it is shellaced except where there is a glue joint for the ribs or rim. The new ribs are then indexed for locating the at the exact location to fit into the slots on the rim.

Finally the soundboard panel wood is dried to 5% EMC and the press is readied for the pressing process. I takes about 5 minutes per rib to press the board. There are 17 ribs in a Steinway D. The board is left in the press overnight to allow the glue to cure.