<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <blockquote>Hi Ric, Narrow minded meant I expected them to only see it "my" way. You made a good point that people won't generally accept that from others. But, if I was the King of the Universe cantilevered bass bridges would go the way of dinosaurs. <G> Thanks Ric. </blockquote> Hi Jim The real point I was trying to make was that not everyone actually likes the same kind of sound.  You may want to see cantilevered bass bridges go the way of dinosaurs.... but I guarantee you that there are many who (after seriously considering various alternatives) do not.  Same thing with soundboard approaches.  Schimmel is a classic example of a company that spent quite a bit of resources looking carefully into basic RC&S design and did not like what resulted. And its hardly because they didnt know what they were doing. The thing is... these design variations result in a difference in sound performance.  If they didnt then guys like Ron, Del, and those who think along similar lines would not find any reason to enact these variations.  They LIKE the change in sound performance.  Thats where everything falls (potentially) totally into the realm of the subjective.  If someone on the other hand does NOT like the resultant sound of these same changes... then who's right is it to find fault with them ? Accusing those who disagree in relation to their subjective likes and dislikes without further ado as being narrow minded and prejudiced is unwarranted. In reality.... there is a lot of that, but it is in more or less equal proportion on all sides of just about any fence you can pick out. And likewise in reality... there is a lot more considered opinion that still results in disagreement with regard to subjectives then is given credit for here. Take for example the Steinway duplex.  There is no escaping the fact that the well maintained S&S duplex is one of the most successful designs in the buying publics eye in the history of piano building.  The marketing argumentation so quickly relied on to explain this away just can not account for this degree of success.  You and I may or may not like the thing... but thats rather less then relevant.... UNTIL it comes to building your own piano.  Then you do what you want... be proud of it.. let others do their thing as well. I'm quite sure you agree with this in principle from reading many of your posts.... and thats why I kinda balked at the suggestion of calling you narrow-minded. Cheers RicB <blockquote> </blockquote> </body> </html>