<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>   Ron</DIV> <DIV>  Well I could send you a DVD of my D but then that's not really a= representative of the Factory instrument.  What's your mailing address though.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  BTW I've seen/heard & worked on  NY D boards as thin as= .320 & as thick as >390 ish. But then the same can be said of the oth= er models. I can't tell there is any parameter for any particular board thickne= ss or at any time frame in there history.</DIV> <DIV>  The NY D I worked on with a thin board did not sustain as well a= s the ones with  a panel in the .360 ish range. My own is .370 & has = the fat envelope you refer to. It's a wonderful sound.</DIV> <DIV>  Dale</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2> <DIV>It was really a bit too ill to tell what it might have sounded like w= hen new. But certainly, with only 8 mm in the high treble, I think it has too little mass to sustain effectively. For my taste, I think the Hamburg Ds a= re a bit too short-and-shocky in the top as a general rule (but then again, the= y would probably say that my boards are too sustaining - it is purely a matt= er of taste). I prefer a bit longer fat-envelope, before the longer lingering= gets under way.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>I'd like to hear a few recordings of well prepared US made Ds. I hear= d a US D played by Cyrus Chestnut in the 300th year television special which sounded pretty good. Anybody know what typical D panel tapering/thicknesse= s are for the US made Ds?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Ron O.</DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>