<html> <body> Michael, You don't need a flame suit, yet, but list protocol, as I perceive it, would have you ask yourself at least two questions  ......first, whether you are significantly redirecting or diluting the focus of a particular thread (group of posts under the same title), and second, make an attempt to read and understand the previous postings, both in the particular thread and, to some extent, in the archives, though I admit, the archives can be daunting.  As the perpetrator of this current mini-thread, and as one who struggles, at times  to articulate ideas clearly, I feel a bit of that Mother Bear & Cubs instinct.  I'm trying to have some specific questions addressed.   I suspect and fear that consideration of downbearing in harpsichords, while related, will digress into a harpsichord discussion.  If you wish to pursue that idea, give it a different title. With regard to your question as to whether NO downbearing would make a difference, you should note that, apart from any other point I was attempting to make, John Hartman discussed downbearing's function in enhancing the impedance of the soundboard which resists the premature depletion of vibrational energy of the string.  The difference between NO downbearing and NEGATIVE downbearing on a piano is conceptual and a function of bridge pins.  Without bridge pins, there is no such thing as negative downbearing. In that case, downbearing would move from positive to NONE with the exception of that "event horizon"- like envelope where the downbearing force was so minimal as to allow the string to buzz against the bridge surface when energized.  After that, there would be virtual silence.  Bridge pin induced NEGATIVE downbearing is, of course, actually POSITIVE UP-PULLING!!. The vibrational energy from the string is conveyed to bridge and board by the bridge pins, but the forces at the string / bridge interface are different.  There is, I suspect, no impedance-inducing stiffening of the board taking place, and the tendency of the string to move up the pin towards a neutral position would be constant and de-stabilizing.  To be sure, if there is, as I suspect, a salutary function of what the Wapin Bridge patent refers to as the "bearing point edge", that function too would be compromised in a POSITIVE UP-PULLING configuration.   Any of that clear? David Skolnik RPT   At 10:46 AM 2/1/2004 +0000, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Hello List et al I'll just repeat something I put on the list some time ago. I regularly tune a Harpsichord with NEGATIVE downbearing. Only the opposing angles of the bridge pins keeping the strings in contact with the bridge. I used regularly to find the strings floating above the bridge until I determined the reason and simply pulled the pins out a little. But note, my friends, this negative down-bearing made no discernible difference to the quality of the sound. But that's a Harpsichord. Any reason for thinking that NO downbearing ( note "NO" not "NEGATIVE" ) would make all that difference in a piano? I have no flame suit I'm just geared up in a space suit ready for that promised trip to Mars. Regards from a beautifully clear-blue sky'd Sussex Downland Village. Yeee  Ha! Michael G (UK)</blockquote></body> </html>