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.