<HTML> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE><TT>Any reason you're not replacing the panel too?</TT></BLOCKQUOTE> <TT>Ron,</TT><TT></TT> <TT>I've been officially discouraged from replacing the panel; I would, if this were December because I'll be making 2-4 anyways. Otherwise, I'll shim and splice it and count on the new ribs working.</TT><TT></TT> <TT>If I were to replace this board (Gene just hinted it could be possible), I/we still might have to eat the cost. In that case the price of stock seems easier to swallow than the price of a panel, and I'd rather give away labor disguised as experience than cash.</TT><TT></TT> <TT>All of the Chickering grands I've seen have fairly inconsistent grain in their boards, and all of them seem worse off than their contemporaries comparable in quality in terms of cracks and loose ribs. However, none of them seemed to have any compression problems - maybe because of the pieced up spruce cases.</TT><TT></TT> <TT>One observation from this Chickering is the "inner rim" shelf is square to the case rather than being angled to match the crown of the board. I can visualize any large difference in angles introducing a lot of stress into the board, so perhaps this contributed to the state of this one.</TT><TT></TT> <TT>Clark</TT></HTML>