<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Hi folks Ok... this round has been full of good stuff, and I have been really enjoying sitting back and reading Phils input and the responses it has generated.  Reading back a bit to review... this quote from one of Nossamans posts stuck out at me...   <blockquote>snip.... Given a panel crowned assembly with a severely dried panel, and one rib crowned with a non dried panel, both to identical crowns at room EMC, the one with the higher panel compression level will have the steeper spring rate gradient, and will be stiffer.</blockquote> Now correct me if I am wrong.. but I understand this to mean that a CC board will be stiffer, both unstrung... and increasingly so when downbearing is applied.  Assuming that is correct, and putting aside all other compression damage discussion for a second or two... I have a question about this long term so called compression set. Given the absolute ideal climatic conditions over many years... would a soundboard subjected to uniform compression set take on a permanent stiffness as a result of that, or is it exactly the woods resistance to being compressed that causes the stiffness ? Seems to me I also read something in one of Johns posts that hinted in this direction. That a CC board <<properly treated>> will eventually be pressed into a very stiff and permanent condition. On the side of this... and please forgive whatever lack of knowledge I display in the asking,  if compression from ribs being glued cross grain to the panel is such a problem...even in RB boards.. is there no way of contriving a rib such that it is a bit less constraining ? Just musing again RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>  </html>