Soundboard Clamping for Downbearing

[Marcel Carey]

Terry,
I don't think you should dry the board before gluing to the rim. The
assumption that the board will shrink is false. After the ribs are glued,
the only thing that is going to change with hunidity is the amount of crown.
To me, after the crowning process, the board should not be dried again. I
think that high temperature MIGHT affect the glue hardness and cause crown
collapse (a little at least).

So, I would and will just clamp the board to the rim making sure that the
humidity conditions are "normal" (if you deal with extremes, you might want
to have more or less downbearing). With the Mason that I'm working with
these days, the board was glued in using soundboard buttons (someone might
tell me if this was original or not). But you could use this to tie the
board down for bearing adjustments.

Have fun and keep me in touch. We are learning my friend.

Marcel Carey
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