It's interesting how many unconnected dots there are in this discussion. For instance, it's presumed and generally agreed that the rasten (where did that word come from, incidentally?) ought to be beveled to "match" the landing angle of the soundboard to minimize undue stress on installation. So since this seems to be an acceptable premise for most, a few questions come to mind. Have any of you who have installed soundboards have actually measured or calculated the panel landing angle and compared that with that of the rasten? Who has then adjusted the rasten bevel angle to accommodate the panel? How about the relatively recent tribe of redesigners using multiple rib radii? Tighter radii will need steeper rasten bevels to match. Does anyone do this? How about bass cutoff bars? How do you bevel the tops of these to match the panel angle? Or do you? How about the fish in the treble? Rib radii in the treble of "typical" redesigns tend to be pretty tight, like in the 4-6M radius range. How do you contour the fish to match the panel? Does anyone do this? If so, how about some details? If not, why all this hypocritical pontification about matching rasten bevels to panel landing angles to minimize panel stress if you don't bother to do it? I'll tell you up front that I don't bother and don't think it means anything anywhere near worth the posturing and pretending it typically gets. With more people all the time exploring soundboard design and function, it seems to me like a good time to clear up some of this glaringly contradictory stuff. It's okay. Nobody's looking. You can come out from behind the smoke screen and fess up. Trust me, no one will notice and the world will go back to exactly like it was by morning. No darkness will be unduly illuminated. Ron N
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