Happy New Year to All.  I am preparing to remove the plate from a
Chickering grand (first time for me).  The downbearing is positive
across both bridges.  I will take detailed downbearing measurements
before and after reducing the string tension.  But I have two questions
that have caused me pause:

1.  Should I expect the downbearing to change as a result of a couple
of repairs to two narrow cracks in the soundboard?  I will be shimming
them as Reblitz and Spurlock recommend.

2.  Is it really necessary to drill alignment holes throughout the plate
and into the underlying wood to get the plate back into the correct
position on reassembly?  The plate screws are in fixed locations on
the frame and there are a couple of wood shims on the left and right
edges of the plate (at each end of the pinblock).  These would appear
to reposition the plate precisely.

My sense is that there will be little or no change to the downbearing
and the plate will go back precisely into place without any alignment
holes, since I am not replacing the soundboard.

This is an exciting project for me.  You are sure to hear jubilant
cries of "Yeah" from me when I complete key portions of the rebuild.
Thanks for your feedback.

Larry Toto