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I prefer to restore the original soundboard, the "heart" of the instrument,
rather than replace it whenever possible. This helps keep the instrument
sounding as it was originally designed and slows down the depletion of a
diminishing natural resource, old growth forests. First the plate
and strings are removed, then the soundboard is dried out, all cracks are
precisely routed out. The soundboard is pushed up from underneath with
wedges and the expanded soundboard cracks are fitted with soundboard shims.
After the wedges are removed the new shims retain the soundboard crown.
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