<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>Paul,<BR><BR>In Kawai grands the plate bushing and therefore the plate itself bears the pull from the strings, and the pinblock is being pushed back, away from the flange.  The plate bushing is made from rock maple, and it is drilled at the same time as the pinblock, so the actual pulling force is transferred directly to the plate there.  If you have a strung Kawai plate and pinblock out of a piano, then you loosen the pinblock screws, the pinblock moves back away from the flange, towards the pianist.  The tuning pins act as little levers, making the block go down and back.  In an un-bushed plate, the pinblock pulls forward and down, so it is essential to fit the block to the flange.  In a bushed plate with good hard bushings, it is a waste of time in the factory to fit the block there, as it will not help the tuning stability at all.  I know this causes some technicians to criticize Kawai, but this is just a consequence of our training in Steinway's way of making pianos.<BR><BR>The top surface of the pinblock is mated very well to the plate, by the way.<BR><BR>Since this has always been the case with Kawai, there are many tens of thousands of pianos here demonstrating that this system works very well.<BR><BR>Donald E. Mannino RPT, Manager</DIV> <DIV>Kawai Piano Technical Support, US and Canada</DIV> <DIV><A href="mailto:dmannino@kawaius.com">dmannino@kawaius.com</A></DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.kawaius.com/">http://www.kawaius.com</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>