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Ramblings and a question.... again.

75.92.165.13

Posted by newbflat on June 12, 2008 at 12:29:14

In Reply to: Review of Michigan Maple Platforms!! posted by the analog kid on June 11, 2008 at 19:54:16:

I posted something like this before ... but i thought i would bore you all again.


As a long time wood worker i have a few thought out there for you Maple fanatics. The Western Big Leaf Maple is a very different tree than the Eastern Rock/ Sugar/hard Maple so popular in cutting boards. The big leaf is a softer, more fibrous and somewhat more prone to warping. Any Maple slab and especially solid slabs of air dried wood will have a tendency to warp and play hell with turntable level unless acclimatized, re-plained and sealed. This is especially true on the east coast with its large humidity swings over the year. Best to bring a dry slab home and let it sit around for a month in the room were it will stay and to allow it to match the ambient humidity in the room and settle into its preferred shape. Then plane it flat and seal it. Also wood that is "rift sawn" will be more stable.

As for sound, i have no opinion other than i suspect a slab of woods behavior under a turntable has more to do with the orientation of the wood grain and feet location that anything. I have been an amateur Luther, a fine woodworker/ cabinetmaker and wooden boat builder for 20+ years so here are my two bits on wood (over valued i would think!) I don't see any reason why Maple has any special qualities. It is used in instrument making but mostly in carved back instruments like Violins, Cellos, Mandolins ect. The physics of what is going on in those instruments i would guess are very different than under a turntable. My understanding of why they use maple is because of the woods ability to dampen out some of the overtones that would play hell in getting a pure tone out of the strings. The wood is essentially resonantly dead. There are other domestic woods that are similar in structure to maple (hard/ moderately hard, homogeneous, with poor resonance) like Black Walnut, Cherry, Apple, Pear, and Beach.... I see no reason why these wouldn't work just as well. But i have zero data or audio experience to back that assumption up.

A wood slab, be it solid or laminated will also have resonant nodes around the slab. To an instrument maker these spots are extremely important when building/bracing a guitar's soundboard and back. Knowing were the nodes are allows correct placement of braces on the top/back thus allowing it to vibrate freely...... or not!. I would suspect that were the feet of the turntable sit on the slab... ether on or off these nodes would have a grate effect on how the slab effects your turntable.

I would guess that true butcher block (end grain only) slabs would be the most free of resonant nodes and be the most "dead" chunks of wood you could get and a solid wood one the opposite.... just don't know if which one is a good thing?

So i have a question to think about.... just what is it that people think the slab of wood is doing under there?... or what should it be doing, or not doing?.... From an instrument makers point of view, understanding exactly what you want the slab to do is the only way to make one that does it!.... I myself don't really have a clue...

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