Mike's Oud Forums

Piano soundboard

sabbassi - 7-5-2011 at 01:24 PM

My daughter is learning Piano, so I asked the piano guy. What do you do with old pianos. he says we use some part for replacement and the rest is used for winter fire .

Very kind gentelman, he give me a very old Yamaha piano soundboard.
the result are: a very old sound board, very nice open , straight grains and very aged.

I will start building a new oud, with some old cuban Mahogany or indian rosewood and the new pegbox (see pegbox topic) and this old piano soundboard. the braces are also removed I will use them also underneath the sound board;

I must say, the old hard varnish is hard to remove and dules the scrapers and the thikness sander become very sticky

pictures:



piano spruce top 3.jpg - 443kB piano spruce top.jpg - 507kB

fadel - 7-5-2011 at 05:58 PM

hi
Great idea



bulerias1981 - 7-5-2011 at 07:08 PM

wow, great idea. I bought a Flamenco guitar like 7 years ago when I visited Granada. And the luthier made the guitar with wood from the old Granada post office, which was damaged in a fire, and the place was rebuilt. He salvaged a lot of wood, some of it being cedar that must have been a couple hundread years old at least.

Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Ararat66 - 7-6-2011 at 01:59 AM

Wow ... would you look at that !!!

btw Sabbassi how did you get on with that circular saw table you were going to get ... is it any good?

Cheers

Leon

sabbassi - 7-6-2011 at 02:05 AM

Hi Leon,

Oh yes, the Bosch PTS 10 is the one I use now. it is powerfull enouph even for ebony and kingwood or any hardwood. I use it with thin kerf blade with carbide. 1.7 thick to save some expensive wood. it goes through the wood like a knife in the butter :). but it is a dangerous one. I always use push sticks. never get closer than 10cm to the blade:)

paulO - 7-6-2011 at 01:23 PM

Hi Samir,

Richard Hankey made a top using old (~100 year old) piano soundboard, I think he still has that oud. This was in the mid 1970's, so it's been done, and I belive with pretty good results. Good luck man, and thanks for sharing all your projects.

Regards..PaulO

Hatem_Afandi - 7-7-2011 at 06:10 AM


GREAT IDEA, Samir!

Dr. Mamdouh El GEbaly's oud is made from old piano wood. It is an EXCELLENT source of wood for ouds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gzD1Og28h4

Using old piano wood for fire is an "artistic crime" :mad:

I hope you will share fils once you are done.

Best Regards,

Hatem



sabbassi - 7-7-2011 at 07:10 AM

Hatem,

Yes it is a crime. but from 2 big board I could make only two suitable soundboards for oud and some braces.

Two friends (customers) already ordered two indian rosewood ouds with this 2 piano boards.

As soon as I start building I will keep the progress updated. First go on holidays !!! yeep.

So today I went to buy some indian rosewood, when my eyes fall victim of a beautiful Coromandel (Macasar ebony) piece of wood, probably enouph for 2 maybe 3 ouds. it is an expensive type of of wood (here in holland anyway), but I could not resist. at least I have something to look forward for when I'm on vacation.

so I already prepared the neck and peg box parts. and this is how it looks like inside




DSC_9628.jpg - 488kB

an exmaple how it should looks like:
very beautiful





Macassar.jpg - 44kB

wow

Yaron Naor - 7-7-2011 at 08:27 AM

Very nice idea with the piano soundboard!
and the ebony looks amazing,
looking foreword to see the Ouds..
Yaron.

Hatem_Afandi - 7-7-2011 at 08:56 AM

Ahlan ya Samir,

Great Idea + Top Quality Wood + Your MAGIC = (?????) ........ I leave the answer to rest of our friends here.

I hope you do enjoy your vacation. I am also looking forward to your progress.

I am not paranoid. However, your post (being unable to resist the wood beauty) does reflect a common problem the majority of us do suffer from!

Looking forward to the impressive results (as usual),

Hatem




sabbassi - 7-10-2011 at 12:17 PM

Thanks Yaron, Hatem,

I have already cut the ribs of the Indian rosewood and the Macassar ebony. although both are very aged wood, (more 10 years old), I l prefere in this case to cut the ribs at least 40 days before starting the build.

for medium aged wood, the ribs are cut at least 1 years before building, dark, humid free room. the ribs are 2,8 mm thick, dry and stablized.

thanks
samir

Dr. Oud - 7-12-2011 at 05:30 AM

Quote: Originally posted by paulO  
Hi Samir,

Richard Hankey made a top using old (~100 year old) piano soundboard, I think he still has that oud. This was in the mid 1970's, so it's been done, and I belive with pretty good results. Good luck man, and thanks for sharing all your projects.

Regards..PaulO

Actually I used pieces from the upright braces of the support frame, not really the soundboard. It was very stiff and wide grained, and may not even be spruce, but it made a nice sounding oud. The wood was so stiff that after I finished the oud it it didn't have much volume, so I removed the brace forward of the bridge, and trimmed off part of the pickguard. So it has only 5 braces. The back is Hawaiin Koa Nut and Lemon wood from Santa Barbara, CA. The current owner is offering it for sale, for info contact Bela at
nitlofb@comcast.net
lemon1F.jpg - 83kB
lemon1B.jpg - 87kB
Other sources of old wood are antique furniture - some old dressers were made with cedar for its aromatic properties, so guitar makers search for old dressers for soundboards. In Iran, santurs are made with walnut soundboards, and many doors in the old village homes were made from walnut, consequently, many of the old doors were harvested by santur makers until the government stepped in to stop the loss of these historical doors.

Sam - 7-12-2011 at 01:37 PM

Isn't the Piano soundboard made of pine wood , which most of the Egyption ouds are made of?? It looks quite like pine wood. ;)

sabbassi - 7-12-2011 at 02:24 PM

Hello Sam :)

Everything is possible, pine and spruce are the same familly (spruce, pine, cedar) The Pinaceae family
Pine is more used for buildings, christmas tree, etc. :)

this one is definitly Spruce, serial number on the board(yamaha), structures of the wood, the smel, the grain..


macassar and Pau Ferro

sabbassi - 7-14-2011 at 10:26 AM

I have finished cutting the ribs macassar and some very old Brasilian Ironwood ( Pau Ferro). another 4 sets of Indian rosewood for 4 customers are also ready, thiknessed all to 2.6mm.

he are some nice pics of the Macassar and pau feroo:

IMAG0060.jpg - 474kB IMAG0061.jpg - 675kB

Microber - 7-14-2011 at 10:57 AM

WAOW
Absolutely wonderful !

:applause: