It would seem that many of us agree that new strings do not continue to slowly stretch over weeks and months, and that the drastic pitch drop that we see must come from crushing of wood, settling of bends, and tightening of becket and coils.... But this begs the question: Why does THAT happen slowly? It's a brute fact the a new string DOES drop in pitch, and it DOES get there via slow creeping over hours and days. Where is this time-release pitch drop coming from? How can a coil slowly settle? Isn't this claiming the same thing you just rejected? (creeping change in metal under load) Why does wood slowly crush rather that all at once? [kurt]