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Would you use old piano soundboard for bracing? I salvaged an old board and other parts long ago and finally have decided to see if it could be recycled. The piano was made in 1888 in the capitol district area of NY state and wound up at the town dump for my scavenging. I'm thinking about using the braces on the board for guitar top bracing. Pictures follow. This stuff has about 40-50 annular rings/inch, seems strong and rings like a bell. Are there good reasons not to use it?

Is it spruce? I have seen pictures of guy using piano sound boards for both the top and the braces.

as long as the grain is the right direction I would use it.

Dan, looks and sounds like primo wood, should be great for braces

Thanks for the feedback. I assumed and am reasonably sure this is spruce, probably local to eastern/northern NY state, but I'm not a wood expert. The bracing on the piano board is perfectly quatersawn, however it's glued with a horizontal grain orientation. (BTW, when the brace popped off the scent of hide glue was unmistakable.) For guitars, I can get vertical grain with a little over 3/4 inch in height. I'm gonna do a 00-12 fret with this stuff and we will see how it works out.

Dan

were the keys ivory veneered? It makes great inlay material

Ed

ruby@magpage.com wrote:Dan

were the keys ivory veneered? It makes great inlay material

Ed

Yup, they were, Ed. I use(d) them for tie blocks on classical bridges and for general inlay decoration on lutes. One of the guitars I finished this year (posted in another spot) sports a saddle made two key tops epoxied together. I still occasionally scrounge around antique stores looking for the key veneers. -d.

A luthier that lives here in Parkersburg, WV, makes guitars entirely out of very old pianos. Their soundboards are fantastic. In fact, I built my last guitar, using white spruce, which has acoustics like red spruce (just a lighter color). White spruce is used a lot in piano soundboards. My 00 has a really great sound.

Check him out here: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/apps/pbcs. ... 09706/1281

Diane, that is an interesting article. I guess recycling piano wood is not a bad notion after all. -d.

I have the impression that there are a whole bunch of pianos out there that need repairs that far exceed their values. I own one that's from about 1905 and it's worth about $800. If I were to restore it to present day standards it would cost thousands. And mine is better than many that are out there. I'm pretty sure there are a lot out there that just get destroyed and sent to the dump. Pretty sad end for an amazing piece of craftsmanship. So if guitars can be made from them, I think that's awesome.