<!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 6.00.2900.2769" 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><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=3>Terry</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=3> <STRONG>Hi. you covered this one really wel=
l
& thoroughly.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2> <BR>Some pianos were designed to have negative
crown.<BR><BR><BR>If the panel has an "S"-shaped cross section, it is likely=
toast. That piano <BR>will likely have bearing on one side of the bridge and=
negative bearing on <BR>the other - or something approaching that.</FONT></D=
IV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2><FONT size=3><STRONG> I once bought A Steinway Long A that =
had
great crown in the bottom end & reverse crown in the top. Never seen tha=
t
since</STRONG></FONT><BR><BR>But many other combinations of these conditions=
are
not necessarily bad. I <BR>have a Boston GP-178 that has a soundboard panel =
that
is as flat as a <BR>pancake - no crown (at least in the top half of the stri=
ng
scale), but it <BR>has nice even moderate downbearing throughout, and the to=
ne
is as great or <BR>better than any Japanese piano I have ever heard. Because=
it
has good <BR>bearing, you know that if you unstrung the piano, the soundboar=
d
would bend <BR>up and you could then observe crown.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2><STRONG><FONT size=3> & even if it doesn't ,so what it =
sounded
great. I've had many pianos that had marvelous sustain & power with flat=
boards. Which means that the mechanical impedance inherent in the design was=
adequate to create the sound by it mass & stiffness. MY Sisters Ma=
son
AA is like that . Awesome sound & no crown. The Caveat is that it had ni=
cely
set bearing> HMM wonder why? Grin</FONT><BR></STRONG><BR><BR>I will=
often look closely at crown and downbearing, etc. when diagnosing a <BR>bell=
y
problem, I also work very closely with all that when setting up a new <BR>pi=
ano
belly.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2> <STRONG>Amen</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2><STRONG> This is where many miss the boat. Failing to provide=
adequate bearing for your new belly system is like having a Porsche with no =
gas
in the tank. amhik</STRONG><BR><BR>However, I have found that when inspectin=
g an
low value piano for someone - <BR>like for a prepurchase inspection on a 194=
8
Gulbranson spinet, or somesuch - <BR>there is usually no reason to even look=
at
the soundboard crown and/or <BR>downbearing. Who cares? What difference does=
it
make? If the piano sounds <BR>good (or as good as can be expected), the pian=
o
sounds good, and that is <BR>good enough. If the piano has a bad killer octa=
ve,
who cares what is causing <BR>it - the piano sounds bad. A detailed analysis=
of
belly components often <BR>won't get you much in return - I usually just che=
ck
that the parts are there <BR>and are not falling off or cracked in half in a=
situation like that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2> <STRONG>Right on & Happy Thanksgiving</STRONG></FONT></D=
IV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2><STRONG> We have much to thank God for.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000=
000
size=2><STRONG> Dale Erwin</STRONG><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>