"plywood" comment
Eliot Moss (moss@rhea.cs.umass.edu)
Wed, 12 Jun 1996 12:01:24 -0400
Saying that MusicMakers Kits uses plywood for soundboards makes it sound as if
they are using lower quality materials. There is a valid and reasonable range
of materials used for soundboards by different makers, to get different sounds
and strengths. Laminates, i.e., multiple layers of wood with different grains,
offer higher strength for the same weight, and thus allow a lighter
soundboard, and possibly a bigger sound. A laminate is not necessarily
"cheap", though, as always, if one uses a material that is mass produced, the
cost can be expected to be lower. One should perhaps emphasize that, at least
on the larger harp that I built (Gothic 36-string) one cannot tell from the
outside that the soundboard is a laminate.
It _is_ true that some people feel that laminates are inappropriate because
they are not traditional, and if one wants an authentically traditional harp,
i.e., historically accurate, then it is a consideration. However, I am of the
mind that even traditional builders did whatever worked (modulo possible
cultural beliefs about how a harp should be made), and I speculate that they
might have used laminates if they were available.
Anyway, I am careful about using the word "plywood" to describe a laminate
used in making a harp. Plywood is what you can get at your hardware store or
lumberyard; most harp makers use higher quality laminates than what you will
usually see at those places, and I know that some makers even manufacture
their own laminates.
-- Eliot Moss