回复：钢琴体检和大家汇报一下，呼唤大家的智慧。

In most of the cases, cracks have little affect on the sound quality.  A few decades ago, there was a suit against Steinway for its not honoring the warranty (5 yrs) when cracks appealed.  Steinway proved that it was more cosmetic than acoustic and won the case.  Both of my Steinway grands have cracks on the soundboards.  One of them has severe cracks, but the sound sustainability is still exceptional.

However, I heard that cracks may cause buzzing sound, if it is at the “right” position and match the “right” frequency.  But if your technician did not find any problem, it should be okay.

The cause of the cracks is humidity.  As I mentioned, the weather in US and the way we using AC/heating system here put lots of extra stress on pianos.  Other than US makers, Yamaha is only one I know who sets different wood seasoning standard for pianos made for North America.  In China, some believe that 南方人不买北方琴,  北方人不买南方琴.  It is the same reason.  A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to people at a rebuilding shop in Shanghai.  They are working on a Steinway from Northeast region of China.  Only 2-3 months after they fixed a cracked soundboard, it has problems again.  I told them that they were too impatient.  They should have waited long before start working on the soundboard.  The wood needs time to adjust itself to the humid Shanghai weather.

It's the same reason that your technician has concern on the pinblock.  If I were you, I will get a humidifier and a de-humidifier.  I own both. 

Also, grand pianos are more sensitive to humidity, due to its open-case design.  I was talking a technician recently, he said he sees more seasoning problems on grands than verticals with those so-called gray-market Yamaha/Kawais.  It confirms my experience.

Your technician believes that it is a fair price.  I agree with him.  Although, soundboard cracks do not affect the sound, they lower the resale value.  Anything visible does.  Once, you are ready to sell it, the next buyer would be as scared as you.  Combine with its low name recognition, you might have hard time to sell it.

BTW, I did not see your reply to my post.

所有跟帖： 

• 谢谢Passerby朋友 -mapatriot- ♂ (196 bytes) () 12/21/2011 postreply 14:32:38

• 回复： -Passerby- ♀ (245 bytes) () 12/22/2011 postreply 10:56:59

• 谢谢Passerby朋友 -mapatriot- ♂ (42 bytes) () 12/24/2011 postreply 11:45:25

• Thx & the same to you. -Passerby- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/24/2011 postreply 11:57:27