downbearing

[Ron Nossaman]

>How would one go 
>about REDUCING the downbearing, and hopefully restore the proper/original 
>crown to the SB? I have read that DB is determined BEFORE initial stringing. 
>Could the nosebolts/plate need adjusting? 

About the only realistic way in this case is to drop string tension,
disconnect the strings from the hitch pins and shim under the aliquot bars
by gluing veneer, fish paper, or some such to the underside and trimming
flush. You can't realistically adjust plate height without pulling it, and
you can't do that without removing tuning pins. I never did much like the
idea of adjusting bearing with nose bolts either.



>I assume the first thing to 
>confirm this hypothesis would be to use a DB gauge, but he did not have it 
>with him at the store At the time. Just curious to hear your thoughts. 
>thanks!
>
>Terry Peterson

Well, sure, it generally helps to try to find out what you've got before
you try to fix it. I have more than a little doubt that lessening the
bearing will fix it, though. By the time an overloaded compression crowned
board quits producing sound, the damage is already done and it would
certainly surprise me if it were fixed with a bearing adjustment at this
point. It might help some, but I wouldn't expect a lot. I've seen badly
overloaded boards that produced plenty of sound when new, but aged and died
fairly quickly in use. I've also found Steinways (when I've checked) to be
fairly consistent in their bearing settings, with a reasonably dependable
correlation between bearing and crown, so it would surprise me if you found
a whole lot of excess bearing. Your results may vary, but that's what I've
seen. For what it's worth, I typically find around 2.5° bearing in the high
treble in Ds. I never have really understood why they load them that heavy
up there. The killer octave area typically has barely detectable bearing.
By the way, did anyone check the crown?

Ron N