patents on the concept by inventors such as Howard Graves (all of whose patents make worthwhile reading). (There were others but this is the one that comes to mind.) I later encountered the feature in the Holland-built Rippen vertical pianos. I first saw this idea implemented in early 20th Century American-made pianos such as the Mehlin grand. How exactly does that happen?Д«roadly speaking, the concept of вЂњfloatingвЂќ the soundboard simply means that some part of the soundboard system is not solidly attached to the inner rim (grands) or the liners (uprights) through some part of its perimeter. Sandwiched between the rim and the cast iron frame weighing upwards of 500 pounds or more, and having roughly 225 wires holding nearly 18 tons of string tension, having a soundboard that вЂњfloatsвЂќ seems paradoxical. When I spoke with you at NAMM convention a few years back you had introduced me to the concept of вЂњfloatingвЂќ soundboards. The design work was completed by late 2009, and since then my work involves helping the company to implement them and generally improve their production processes and quality control. IвЂ™ve been making roughly six trips a year to Korea and China ever since. The company had just been purchased by Hyundai and its new management wanted to divest itself of the past and develop a product line that was uniquely Young Chang. That led to the request to redesign the entire product line. This led to my being asked to meet with the companyвЂ™s new Chairman, Mr Park, following which I was asked to visit their factories in Incheon, Korea, and Tianjin, China. In late 2007 I was asked by Phil Glen-then Technical Services Manager for Young Chang-to prep one of their concert grands for the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show and, when finished, write a report on both the condition of the piano and its design, which I did.

How long have you been consulting for Young Chang pianos? Young Chang, for readers who arenвЂ™t aware is considered one of the вЂњbig 5вЂќ Asian pianos ~ being Yamaha and Kawai (from Japan), Samick and Young Chang (from Korea) and now Pearl River (China) who collectively manufacture hundreds of thousands of pianos annually.

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