Piano soundboard cracked#
Piano soundboard crack#

After purchase, make sure you protect your instrument by keeping humidity levels between 35 and 65% and you should be ok.Every Fazioli piano emerges from the great vision of the company's founder combined with the daily commitment of the many skilled and passionate colleagues that form the Fazioli technical team.

Piano soundboard cracked#

Conclusion: When purchasing a (grand) piano don’t buy one with a cracked soundboard, a pressure ridge or 2 is all right. For whatever reason I see more Yamaha grand pianos with pressure ridges than Kawai, I don’t know why, it’s possibly different spruce, but it’s just an observation from being in the business for a long time. Excessive moisture may also cause the strings, tuning pins and other metal parts to rust. Too much moisture can ruin not only the soundboard but it also causes the wood in the keys to swell, resulting in sticking keys and sluggish response in the mechanism. The loss of natural moisture in the soundboard also causes the pitch to go flat. Extreme dryness can cause complete failure of the soundboard and pin block. If the environment is too dry, the soundboard will shrink beyond the dryness level at which the instrument was manufactured, causing cracks in the wood and even failure of glue joints. The pitch of the strings depends to a certain extent on the amount of humidity present in the soundboard, which expands and contracts with changes in heat and relative humidity. Wood is hygroscopic and it expands and contracts across the grain with agressive changes in humidity. (except new Kawai and Mason & Hamlin, they use plastic) High humidity is bad for a piano and low humidity is even worse for a piano, and the worst is this swinging back and forth.Temperature and humidity control are therefor critical elements in maintaining a valuable instrument. Wet, humid conditions swell and warps wooden parts and dry parched conditions shrinks and cracks wooden piano parts. Everything in a good piano is either made of wood or depends on wooden parts to function. Piano manufacturers will not guarantee a pressure ridge, they can be found even on many new pianos still sitting on the dealer’s showroom floor. Pressure ridges are not cracks but actually the opposite and I consider them good. Although cracks can be repaired, it is a major job for a skilled piano technician, and would normally take several weeks in a workshop to complete at high cost. If there is a distinct buzz when notes are struck quite firmly, this can also be an indication of a cracked soundboard.

Piano soundboard crack#

A crack is only going to get bigger and could affect the tone and overall sound of the instrument. When purchasing a piano check as much of the soundboard as you can see carefully for cracks. DO NOT BUY! It needs many hours and lots of money to fix this. More humid conditions cause sound boards to swell, pushing the wood grain with force causing the soundboard sometimes to develop a “pressure ridge”. New pianos, because of new wood, will crack much sooner than older ones, sometimes even within a week after being exposed to very dry conditions. Pianos will develop cracks after prolonged dry conditions. A soundboard of any piano has a vast amount of pressure exerted on it. are specialist in high quality used pianos, therefore we see a lot of soundboard problems and here are some observations for you. Piano Soundboard Cracks, Piano Soundboard Pressure Ridges, the difference. Piano Soundboard Cracks Posted on August 18th, 2014