Wow is this a great list or what? Thanks for the prompt responses from everyone. Del, I will take a look tomorrow regarding the anchor. The bolt is in the center of a metal plate affixed with two screws. After some reflection, I thought that maybe my breaking the beckets with a shear had caused the bolt to vibrate and turn in a bit. I don't think this happened, though, as the bolt is fairly firm to any sympathetic vibration. Interestingly, I strung the tenor section today and put only enough tension on the new strings to hold the coils in shape. And sure enough, the gap has shunk. Movement is occuring...surely a lot more will come with concert tension. Now what? There are no visible cracks in the plate. I cranked the pinblock screws and plate bolts before any beginning stringing. Thanks to all for the help. << Mike, The question is, what is the bolt anchored to in the belly rail? If it just dead-ends into the belly rail without much support behind it there easily could be enough wood movement to account for a 4 to 5 mm gap once string tension is removed from the plate. It is also possible that it wasn't adjusted correctly at the factory. In any case, you can be quite sure that it was the intention of the designer that the bolt and horn meet prior to the application of string tension. >>
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