To dry or not to dry?

[Ron Nossaman]

>The crown under full load of the strings is barely positive, maybe 1/32"
>using a thread in the middle of the board.

Is that at the long rib, where boards nearly never go concave, or in the 
killer octave, where they nearly always do?


>I pulled out my old Baldwin downbearing gauges (don't know where these
>came from). Measuring in percentages of incline difference between the
>speaking length and the behind-the-bridge strings I got: bass bridge ,
>1+%; tenor section, 1/2%; third section, 1/2%; fourth section, 1+%.  A
>little excessive on the bass bridge, but otherwise not bad.

What's that in degrees? I once figured Baldwin's alien bearing measurement 
system at something like 1.75% pre degree as a conversion (I think that's 
right, but it might not be). If it is, that's 0.6+° in the bass and top 
section, and about 0.3° in the tenor and low treble - I think. As you said, 
heavy for the bass, but not bad otherwise unless the board in that third 
section is already concave.

Ron N