Steinway S 334968 Soundboard pressed

Steinway S #334968 Soundboard Ribs

The soundboard ribs are notched into the shelf of the rim where the completed soundboard will be glued. I take great care in individually fitting each rib to the piano rim shelf. The ribs are also dimensioned to the proper width and thickness. When this is completed, they are indexed and prepared for gluing onto the spruce panel.

Steinway S #334968 A Soundboard is Born

A new soundboard begins with 13-18 pieces of quarter sawn Sitka Spruce from North West USA. These thin strips of wood begin at aprox. 1/2" thickness, and need to be edge glued to form a sheet of spruce that will become a soundboard.I start with gluing up 2-3 pieces that become about 12" in width. I end up with about 5-6 of these pieces.

After the glue has cured, I plane these to the desired end thickness, in this case 5/16". These 12" pieces are edge glued together until the full sheet is completed.

Then, the old soundboard is used as a pattern to select the proper grain angle, and an outline is traced so that the new board can be cut to it's shape. The fresh glue joints are sanded to remove any squeeze out and to smooth any slight unevenness. A new soundboard panel has been created.