Abstract
Lumber for musical instrument needs high quality for beautiful sound. This paper examines lumber for piano, because piano are mass-produced in Japan, and focus on the material for piano soundboards. In Japan, large-scale piano production was started after World War II. Especially, piano production has increased since 1960, stable lumber supply was necessary for piano companies. At that time, Yezo spruce (Picea jezoensis) was generally used for piano soundboards in Japan, but its resources and cut down quantity had been decreasing. In 1961 lumber import was liberalized, and piano companies had substituted Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) for Yezo spruce. Today, Sitka spruce is main material for piano soundboards because of stable supply. However Yezo spruce has been used and in recent years, use of European spruce and Chinese spruce has started. Piano companies use lumber of different grade for degree of piano production because they aim for wide users.
