<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Hi Mark. Just a thought here... You say the string had 1 mm of positive bearing... and now the surface is 3 mm lower.. i.e. 2 mm negative.  That essentially means the plane of the string has gone from being pushed upwards to being pulled downwards... and the net deflection is increased by 1 mm.  Pitch has to go up some small amount by this change depending on the length of the string.  On the other hand, the strings offset through the bridge pins is lessened significantly shortening this length.... which will lower the tension quite a bit more then the net increase in vertical deflection (negative tho that may be) would cause. I dont know how you are measuring changes in bridge dimensions... but I find it difficult to believe that the overall thickness of the whole bridge / soundboard changed so much that the height of the bridge recessed by 3 mm. That would mean something like a 5-6 mm shrinkage in the entire thickness yes ?  If you take the panel at a liberal nominal 10 mm and the bridge similiarly at 40 then you are talking about a 10 % shrinkage.  This tells me something else is going on.... i.e. the front and rear termination heights are not static either. And just for the record... consider the consequences of the vertical force on the bridge caused by such a change. Gets interesting real quick. Cheers RicB <blockquote>I just went down and measured note #40 on a 1963 Baldwin L we have yet to re-string, which had 1mm positive bearing when we prepped it last summer: The bridge surface is presently THREE MILLIMETERS LOWER ( 1/8th" ) i.e.: TWO MILLIMETERS NEGATIVE, relative to the front and rear terminations. (RH 34%) (an improvement from measurements I last posted 05/03/07; RH 9%) .2mm cap rise I can see, given the approximate 6mm thickness of this cap at note #40, but 3 whole millimeters drop? Three millimeters, now that's a meaty number.... where'd all that wood go? (inquiring minds, even wandering ones, need to know ;>) best regards Mark Cramer Brandon University</blockquote> </body> </html>