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Old 09-05-2016, 06:02 AM
dneal dneal is offline
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Default Old pianos as wood source?

Maybe belongs in the build and repair section. Mods please move as necessary...

So I noticed on Facebook that a friend was giving away two old pianos, and most of the comments hinged on the fact that the soundboards were cracked and not worth the cost of repair.

Maybe that's the case, but I got to thinking about those big planks of mahogany used for the body/case, which could clearly be resawn for tops and backs; and then I wondered about the spruce soundboard itself.

Has anyone reused spruce from a piano soundboard, and is it even feasible?
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Old 09-05-2016, 06:34 AM
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kkrell kkrell is offline
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Looks like it might be feasible for soundboards, although results might vary depending on whether really solid wood or a laminate. Also, they're already fairly thin, but I see guitar tops can be thinner.
See http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/soundbds.htm

The piano cabinets themselves are also quite likely to be laminate, rather than solid.
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Old 09-05-2016, 06:59 AM
dneal dneal is offline
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Turns out this is a commonly recurring topic (sorry for that), and the soundboard planks are usually too narrow for a guitar top.

Agree that many pianos are veneer, but there are a lot of old uprights that are solid mahogany. Mahogany was cheap and plentiful.
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Old 09-05-2016, 07:01 AM
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Mr. Jelly Mr. Jelly is offline
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Some of this is being done by the smaller builders. It doesn't work for the large manufactures. I've heard some great stories about recovering some wood for Santa Cruz guitars. In the old days when they cut down a tree for that really good guitar wood they left a pretty large stump. Now they have been going back and harvesting those stumps and using that premo old and now dried wood for guitars. When a shop builds about 500 to 700 guitars a year and has been in the business forty years plus they care about such things they can use some awesome wood. Check out their ghost guitar. Wow!
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