David  Right on all counts. Dave , it sounds like you heard my lengthy description/diatribe on the self destructive crowning method called Compression crowning. It includes all the reasons you cite for destruction and more. <div id=AOLMsgPart_0_9fabd316-522d-44c3-b006-6d3d6a5b35c4 style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff">You have accurately connected the dots.  Re-crowning- is not only useless it's too expensive & the results in my opinion aren't worth the effort & I will not beat on the horse further to be certain sure.   Be assured ,there is much in the archives on this subject.  Thanks for the kind comments    Regards    Dale This is a curious question directed toward Dale Erwin and other  soundboard people.    Would it be fair to say that the majority of soundboards die  after, say, 80 to 100 years? If that's true, then what's the  major reason? Is it climate, or the simple fact that the board  has been under pressure, or both of the the above?   Also, this "death" is at the cellular / granular level, right?  So then "re-crowning" would be about as useful as putting new  chrome on a car with a destroyed chassis, eh?    (Sorry if this is a dead horse already thoroughly beaten.)    Thanks, and thank you again, Dale, for a great talk in Chicago.  David    David B. Stang  Columbus Ohio      </div> <div id='MAILCIAMB012-5bbc48fc052f266' class='aol_ad_footer'> <HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"></HR>McCain or Obama? Stay updated on coverage of the Presidential race while you browse - <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1211139166x1200680084/aol?redir=http://toolbar.aol.com/elections/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000002">Download Now!</a> </div>