Mandolin Tops From Piano Sound Boards

[Poener]

I'll have a Steinway topped peutie please. Or, I'll have a Wurlitzer topped hangfrom please. Anyone ever use piano sound boards?

[fishtownmike]

NO! They are not thick enough. Usually a piano soundboard is somewhere around 5/16". They are great for recycling into guitar soundboard though

[barry k]

A lot of upright pianos have thicker soundboards, but even if they are thinner, build with a standard spruce top , and cut up the piano soundboard for tonebars.

[MnRoss]

I know of a builder friend that has used piano sound boards for mando braces/tone bars from time to time.

[8ch(pl)]

What about using them to make flat tops?

[Charles E.]

The sound boards could be used for flat top mandolins. We helped a neighbor dismantle a piano a few years back, we use the braces for violin-viola sound post stock ( sounds great ) the ebony keys for nuts and saddle's and got a whole box of ivory off the white keys for inlay.

[mando bandage]

It's been done. I've heard some of these instruments, and they sound good.

See the link: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=55860309&albumId=2322208

MB

[toddjoles]

I'm still fairly new to all this, but the piano sound boards that I have seen have all been flat sawn. For an instrument top you want quarter sawn.

Quarter sawn
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll or ////////\\\\\\\\

Flat sawn: In reality, the straight lines are curved rings following the circumference of the tree.

==============
==============
==============

Could you use it? Sure.
Would it effect the tone? Probably.
Would it effect the strength and flexibility? Definitely.
How would it look? Probably quite funky!
Would I use it? No, only for tone bars.

[Gary McMoran]

Piano soundboards are quartersawn, or close enough. The soundboard in a piano works the same as in all other instruments, just bigger. Not sure what pianos you've been looking at that have flatsawn boards?
I have a small cast off piece I'm using to build a flattop piccolo.

[barry k]

Yup, the ones I have used were quarter sawn, or just off the quarter.

[fishtownmike]

Maybe he's confusing the lid for the soundboard. Many do.

[jim simpson]

How much does a Steinway?

[barry k]

......Thats not a Steinway, its a Messerschmitt.....:))

[toddjoles]

No I'm not confusing the lid for the sound board. This was my experience with old piano sound boards. In my younger days I loved to find out what made things work and was able to demo...I mean take apart two old piano's. ;-) Both of these sound boards were flat sawn. One was a full upright and the other a spinet. I can't remember the brand names.

If they are quarter sawn great! All the better. If there is no run out and they are wide enough and thick enough, it might be worth the effort to resaw. Give it a try and let us all know how it turns out. If they are nice and old, you know they are well seasoned.

[Gary McMoran]

What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft?
A flat minor.

If you look close, you'll see the glue lines of where it was put together from many smaller boards. In my case, I just put the glue line down the center. Usually you have to look pretty close to see it. You might have to deal with two glue lines if you're building a larger instrument.

At one time I had a fair amount of this material. I worked for a grand piano factory for about 10 yrs, and had some cut offs, boards that weren't usable,etc. We also rebuilt a number of old pianos. Anyway, this was before I became interested in building mando's and got rid of a lot of it. Doh!

[sebastiaan56]

Hi Gary,

I bought some billets of Sitka from an old piano soundboard stash. Beautiful, perfectly quartered and now over 40YO. I had it cut for flat tops and guitars. I am getting good at 4 piece soundboards, its not a big deal.

[BlueMt.]

How much does a Steinway?
88 Keys

[Gary McMoran]

Here's an old tip for bleaching out ivories taken off piano keys. Put the pieces in a shallow pan in some hydrogen peroxide and set out in the sun. Works great, in the summertime anyway.
(I think that's how it goes, it's been a while).

I wish I still had some of the bigger pieces, I'd definitely try a guitar out of it.

[oldwave maker]

These tops came from an upright that got to Silver City new mexistan in 1909. Too thin for carved tops, but great for flattops, The Beechwood 2x4's in the harp frame made useless noodly mandonecks, but burned pretty good in the woodstove once completed....... there was a square grand for sale in Socorro a while back with brazilian rosewood veneer everywhere except the soundboard.

[Gary McMoran]

I have some of those posts that I saved from a piano that was too far gone to mess with. No good for necks? hmmm, I was kind of thinking to use it for that. though it is kind of plane, no figure at all. Well, I might try it for a neck on a toddler fiddle, maybe. nothing to lose there.

[Gary McMoran]

Make that 'plain', not 'plane'. freudian slip.

[Fred Young]

Keep in mind.. those old pianos and ect.. were built with tone producing wood in mind. Having said that.. without looking under the veneer?? could lose a piece of very great tight grained tone wood.....darn!:(

[Gary McMoran]

I looked at the wood under the veneer on some pieces that I had. I'm far from a wood expert, but it didn't look like anything I'd want to use on a mandolin. I suppose you could laminate up some blocks and points maybe. The grain had large, open pores. It had an attractiveness level of about 0.

[Fred Young]

I looked at the wood under the veneer on some pieces that I had. I'm far from a wood expert, but it didn't look like anything I'd want to use on a mandolin. I suppose you could laminate up some blocks and points maybe. The grain had large, open pores. It had an attractiveness level of about 0.

Yes you are correct about the acttractivenes. Popular is a good tone wood to a large degree. But it is so plain! And older gentleman had built his own mandolin from Q/S popular and his music was placed in the archives in the big library.. I haven't tried it myself as of yet. Good luck

[Gary McMoran]

What I had wasn't poplar though. I'd use poplar. It was some kind of wide grained wood. lightweight. This was just one piano though. There might be some good stuff in others.

[David Newton]

Every builder should dismantle a piano for the wood, once. That will be all it takes to dissuade you from a second try. Lots of work for a little wood.
Pick a piano with a wooden frame, not a steel one, quite a bit more wood there.
The soundboard is generally glued up of narrow pieces, so bracing is the main product. There are also piano tone bars that yield larger bits.
The frame is secondary wood, and good for other stuff.

[Red Henry]

A few years ago at SPBGMA I was speaking to Louisiana builder Luke Thompson, and he mentioned that he's used an old piano soundboard for several mandolin tops. He really liked the old wood, but what kind of piano it was, he didn't say.

Red.

[John Arnold]

I have probably dismantled a dozen pianos over the years, and I have never seen a soundboard that wasn't QS. The soundboards are normally about 3/8" thick, and glued up from pieces that are 3" to 6" wide. The soundboard bracing is about 1" square, and works very well for guitar braces or mandolin tone bars. The core material of the case is usually poplar, but I have also seen sycamore and chestnut. The rear support posts can be most anything....spruce, hemlock, and elm are three woods that come to mind. On the last piano, I went the extra mile and got the rock maple pin plank. That meant that I had to unscrew all 220+ tuning pins with a variable speed drill. The pin plank is made of some of the densest, tightest grain maple that I have ever seen. I first heard about recycling the pin plank from Snuffy Smith, who uses it for banjo bridges. I primarily have used it for guitar bridgeplates, and I find it to be similar (if not equal) to Timeless Timber.

[mando bandage]

Here's a story on a piano to mandolin recycler. Nothing conventional about his approach or his instruments, but this is the type of guy that can make music on a comb and a kleenex.

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20102110313

R

[Bernie Daniel]

Charles E: The sound boards could be used for flat top mandolins. We helped a neighbor dismantle a piano a few years back, we use the braces for violin-viola sound post stock ( sounds great ) the ebony keys for nuts and saddle's and got a whole box of ivory off the white keys for inlay.

This is a bit tangential to the string but what are the white and black keys made of on modern pianos?