Sounding board

“ Another workman is making a sounding-board, another fitting one in its place, &c. &c. All the blocking being in the case, the sounding-board is fitted and fastened in its place, so as to have the greatest possible vibrating power, &c.; and then the iron frame must be fitted over all and cemented and fastened down. The frame is finished, with its hundreds of holes and pins, in the drillers'-room, and the workman here has only to fit it to its place and secure it there; and then the skeleton case is ready to receive its strings and begins to look like what may make a piano-forte. ”

“ The intensity is greatest when the vibrations of the string or sounding body are perpendicular to the sounding-board, and least when they are in the same plane with it. The sounding-board of the piano-forte is better disposed than that of any other stringed instrument, because the 150hammers strike the strings so as to make them vibrate at right angles to it. ”

“ If a sounding board is placed so as to resound to all the instruments of the orchestra, and connected by a metallic rod of considerable length with the sounding-board of a harp or piano, the instrument will accurately repeat the notes transmitted. ”

“ When he has got a sounding-board ready for a piano, he puts it in the air, rain, snow, sun, or any beastly thing, to warp it, and then he glues crossbars in until it is strong and firm. He’s quite glad when it warps, for you’re about certain nothing more can happen to it. He often cuts into it himself, and glues it again, and so makes it strong. ”

“ This instrument is of a much more advantageous form than the triangular Grecian harp. It has thirteen strings, but wants the forepiece of the frame opposite to the longest string. The back part is the sounding-board, composed of four thin pieces of wood, joined together in form of a cone, that is, growing wider towards the bottom; so that, as the length of the string increases, the square of the corresponding space in the sounding-board, in which the sound was to undulate, always increases in proportion. ”

“ Cut a hole 6 inches in diameter in the center of the board which you are going to use for the sounding board, and then glue all of the pieces together using wood clamps to hold them tight.
For the neck take a stick of wood 11⁄2 inches wide, 21⁄2 inches thick and 15 inches long; cut it down until one end is 1 inch thick and cut a piece out of this end 3⁄4 inch wide and 1 inch deep; bore a conical hole through this end and fit in a peg. Next saw out the other end 2 inches deep for a length of 3 inches back and glue and screw this end of the neck to the narrow end of the box. ”

“ It is evident that the sounding-board and the whole instrument are agitated at once by all the superposed vibrations excited by the simultaneous or consecutive notes that are sounded, each having its perfect effect independently of the rest. ”

“ Experiments and observations show that wires are of practically no12 benefit, and sounding boards can be used only in special cases. Wires stretched in a room scarcely affect the sound, since they present too small a surface to disturb the waves. They have much the same effect on sound waves that a fish line in the water has on water waves. The idea has, perhaps, grown into prominence because of the action of a piano in responding to the notes of a singer. The piano has every advantage over a wire in an auditorium. ”

“ Through the edge, and afterwards along the rod are poured, with unfailing precision, the entangled pulsations produced by the shocks of those ten agile fingers. To the soundboard of the harp before you the rod faithfully delivers up the vibrations of which it is the vehicle. This second sound-board transfers the motion to the air, carving it and chasing it into forms so transcendentally complicated, that confusion alone could be anticipated from the shock and jostle of the sonorous waves. But the marvellous human ear accepts every feature of the motion ”

“ The sound-board is now also slightly curved, forced upward or made convex that it may resist the downward pressure of the bridge that holds the strings slightly elevated from their level, to secure a complete and intimate communion for the transmission of vibrations. It is clear that, if, from any cause, a sound-board should become concave, or loose at any of the sides, serious consequences would ensue. ”

“ The sound-board itself is made of most carefully chosen pine; in Europe of the Abies excelsa, the spruce fir, which, when well grown, and of light, even grain, is the best of all woods for resonance. The pulsations of the strings are communicated to the sound-board by the bridge, a thick rail of close-grained beech, curved so as to determine their vibrating lengths, and attached to the sound-board by dowels. The bridge is doubly pinned, so as to cut off the vibration at the edge of the bearing the strings exert upon the bridge. ”

“ By stretching the skins on the boards with the back on one side, belly on the opposite side, they come off the boards looking smooth and uniform in width, and command a great deal better price than if thrown on in a haphazard way on a shingle or an inch board badly shaped, as a great many beginners do. ”

“ This board takes up the vibrations of the strings; but, unlike the rubber, gives them all out to the air, greatly re-enforcing their strength, and changing somewhat their quality. But the air itself may act in like manner. In almost any room or hall not more than fifteen or twenty feet long, a person can find some tone of the voice that will seem to meet some response from the room. ”

“ Across, from side-plate to side-plate, lay some loose boards, for a platform; then, standing on these boards, let your assistant lift one end of the ridge-plank, while with one nail to each rafter you fasten the two end-rafters on to the ridge-plank, fit the jaws of the bird’s-mouth cuts (Fig. 71) over the ends of the side-plates, and hold them temporarily in place with a “stay-lath”—that is, a piece of board temporarily nailed to rafter and end-plate. ”

“ The diagonal boarding costs a trifle more in material and labor than the horizontal, but it is so much superior that the extra expense may well be incurred. Every board forms a double brace, one where nailed to the studding and one where the siding or “clap boards” are nailed to the rough boards and the studs. Nothing has yet been discovered which is so satisfactory, and which gives such strength and protection to the frame as does this preliminary diagonal boarding, covered with paper. ”

“ All that is necessary is that it should stand firmly and move readily on its legs. All that is needful is a heart-shaped cedar board with two nicely turned metal legs carrying well-oiled casters, and in the point of the board an aperture of suitable size for the insertion of a lead pencil, which serves as the third leg, and rests upon the paper. Many believe that humbug was stamped over every movement of the planchette board, and that one or the other of those whose hands bore upon it conspired with the little board in the formulation of its reply. ”

“ To the top of each finger-guide was attached a stout brass wire with regulating screw, which pressing against the outside of the wrist, kept the hand in its proper position with regard to the arm. In addition, there was a board ruled with bass and treble staves, called the gamut board, to be placed on the music-desk, on which each note throughout the entire compass of the instrument was found written precisely above its corresponding key. ”

“ The board is turned, and sideways, near every first hole, a second hole is made which likewise takes a slanting direction to the board. The bands are drawn through these holes, and to be able to do this the bands must be well pasted and twisted to a point; cutting off the extreme ends of the bands will facilitate the drawing through. To draw the bands quite firm and tight the boards are stood upright in the groove, the bands drawn through as tight as possible, and in this position—that is, with the boards half open—they are knocked down with a hammer upon a firm bed. ”

“ Some neighbouring tribes, however, possess a musical instrument very similar in appearance to the bow, to which they attach a gourd, hollowed and open at the top, which serves as a sound-board. Again, other African tribes have a similar instrument, superior in construction only inasmuch as it contains more than one string, and is provided with a sound-board consisting of a suitable piece of sonorous wood. In short, the more improved we find these contrivances the closer they approach our harp. ”

“ The height of each rut above the fingerboard cannot well be given in fractions of an inch, as they must be regulated to the convenience of the performer. A hard, rasping, orchestral player, with a heavy, unsympathetic bow arm, will require the ruts higher above the board than a soloist of refined taste. The relative heights, one with another, must be the same in both cases. When the ruts are finished, recourse must be had to the glasspaper file again to round the top surface of the nut with an inclination downwards toward the peg-box. ”

“ We have here strings, bridge, and sound-board, or belly, as it is technically called, indispensable for the production of the tone, and indivisible in the general effect. The proportionate weight of stringing has to be met by a proportionate thickness and barring of the sound-board, and a proportionate thickness and elevation of the bridge.
The tension of the strings is met by a framing, which has become more rigid as the drawing power of the strings has been gradually increased. In the present concert grands of Messrs. Broadwood, that drawing power may be stated as starting from 150 lb. ”

“ The harp of the early ages was a triangular instrument, consisting of a horizontal board which seems to have been about three feet in length, an upright bar inserted into one end of the board, commonly surmounted by an imitation of the human hand, and a number of strings which crossed diagonally from the board to the bar, and, passing through the latter, hung down some way, terminating in tassels of no great size. ”

“ In the elevation, Fig. 58, the string is shown to be straight, similar to the string of a common straight flight. This results from having an equal width in the winders along the wall-string, and, as we have of necessity an equal width in the risers, the development of the string is merely a straight piece of board, as in an ordinary straight flight. In laying out the string, all we have to do is to make [Pg 36] a common pitch-board, and, with it as a templet, mark the lines of the treads and risers on a straight piece of board, as shown at 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. ”

“ The amateur wood-worker often has trouble in joining two boards together so that they will fit square and tight. The accompanying sketch shows a simple and effective method of doing this. Secure a board, A, about 12 in. wide that is perfectly flat. Fasten another board, B, about 6 in. wide, to the first one with screws or glue. Now place the board to be joined, C, on the board B, letting it extend over the inside edge about 1 in. and fastening it to the others with clamps at each end. Lay the plane on its side and plane the edge straight. ”

“ Tip-ups are made in several ways, but the simplest plan, which is as good as any, is to provide a piece of thin board, say two or three feet long and two or three inches wide. A few inches from one end a hole is bored, through which is thrust a round stick, like a section of a broom-handle, and long enough to extend well across the hole in the ice. ”

“ His principal effort was to sustain the board at the ends, leaving the sides free, not permitting the board to be pierced for the insertion of screws to unite the upper and lower frame–work, as is generally done. ”

“ When the boards are trimmed down so as to be exact duplicates of each other, place one board over the other so that their edges all fit exactly and then nail each end of the two boards together for the distance of about six inches. Turn the boards over and nail them upon the opposite side in the same manner, clamping the nail ends if they protrude. ”

“ The strings, of finely drawn brass, steel or iron wire, were stretched almost parallel with the keyboard over the narrow belly or soundboard resting on the soundboard bridges, often three in number, and wound as in the piano round wrest or tuning pins set in a block at the right-hand side of the soundboard and attached at the other end to hitch pins. The bridges served to direct the course of the strings and to conduct the sound waves to the soundboard. The scaling, or division of the strings determining their vibrating length, was effected by the position of the tangents. ”

“ It is not quite easy to fasten a little stick to a board so that it will lean over just right. So it is better not to use a stick or a cane in the way I have described, but instead to use a piece of board cut to just the right shape.
Fig. 1 shows what a sun-dial should look like. [73] The lines to show the shadow's place at the different hours of the day will be marked on the board ABCD, and this will be put flat on the window-sill or piazza floor. The three-cornered piece of board abc is fastened to the bottom-board ABCD by screws going through ABCD from underneath. ”

“ The former overstrung an iron frame square, the latter overstrung an iron frame grand, the culmination of this special make since of general American and German adoption. It will be seen that, in the American make, the number of tension bars has not been reduced, but a diagonal support has, to a certain extent, been accepted and adopted. The sound-board bridges are much further apart than obtains with the English grand, or with the Anglo-French Erard. The advocates of the American principle point out the advantages of a more open scale, and more equal pressure on the sound-board. ”