Water damage repair on a Kawai NV5 (?)

keff

I came across this video made by the Icelandic piano tuner as he repaired a digital piano. It was the internal appearance of the soundboard which interested me the most as it looks to be plywood. I assume the outside face would have been veneered to look like quarter sawn spruce. If the board is plywood it demonstrates that they work perfectly well. What do other readers think?

navindra

keff You might be on to something.

There was a famous video some time back by Jim Lill on how the sound of an electric guitar depends on some very specific factors, none of them being "tone woods". In the end the researcher was able to replicate the sound of some expensive instruments with relatively cheap components.

Of course, this says nothing about acoustic instruments...

keystring

keff I came across this video made by the Icelandic piano tuner as he repaired a digital piano. It was the internal appearance of the soundboard which interested me the most as it looks to be plywood.

I see that it's a Kawai. My Kawai digital (hybrid) piano has a soundboard that runs the length of the piano, and is fitted with transducers to make it vibrate when turned on. I remember that it's a (spruce?) laminate and I had to pay a fair bit extra for the option. When I compared identical models with and without, the difference was enough for me to opt for it.

WieWaldi

navindra Great video. This guy answered an old question of me. For me, it always felt a bit of humbug when the guys from Anderton Music were blindfolded listening to a guitar and then talking about how they hear the difference between something like a maple or rosewood neck. I had the suspicion, they can identify the entire guitar out of a set of about 10 and then they blah blah about specific components, before they tell the name of the product. Just to make the video more interesting. Or to keep up the appearance of having an excellent hearing. Or to have an excuse to justify the price of guitar A over guitar B. (They are salesmen)

CrisOliveira

https://www.pianobuyer.com/post/the-benefits-of-laminated-soundboards

Laminated soundboards are nothing new and it seems they are bad only when they are badly designed or built -- which contributes to bad reputation, when it occurs. The fact that they're used in Kawai's digital pianos but not in Shigeru is probably because the costs of making full sized plywood soundboards would be too prohibitive for such a small production.

keystring

WieWaldi For me, it always felt a bit of humbug when the guys from Anderton Music were blindfolded listening to a guitar and then talking about how they hear the difference between something like a maple or rosewood neck.

That seems kind of weird (so agreeing), because why would the neck of a guitar affect the quality of sound in the first place. Sound quality is affected by whatever is vibrating to move the air and how the air is set into motion. On an acoustic guitar or violin, the strings vibrate, and then the vibrations are also transmitted along the body (tonewood) and within. The wood will also be altered through the playing which is why a new instrument sounds relatively dull until it gets played in. On an electric guitar, wouldn't the vibration be a combination of the strings, and then the amplifier?

In terms of my Kawai, it is tone wood, and it does vibrate through the action of the transducers which are set in motion. The external sound comes both from speakers, and from the soundboard, when the soundboard is turned on. That wouldn't be like a guitar neck. (Or is there some logic to the guitar neck claim? I've become curious.)