[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by LouieAtienza

I never said that distortion was a prerequisite for failure. Apparently to me it does contribute to it. I did mention catastrophic failure as well. It could very well be that the top deformation causes the bridge to "tip" enough that the "pulling" force overcomes the strength of the glue joint (or wood fibers) in that localized area, which then creates a "chain reaction" of sorts of bridge tipping further, pulling away from the top further, causing it to tip further, etc. Whether it's actually "peeling" I'm not sure, but that is my observation and I was careful to put it in quotes.

Fair enough.

My point is, if you mitigate flexing of the top at the point of the back of the bridge, then the bridge and soundboard will tip "together" as if it were on a hinge at that point Dave Malicky describes, leaving any failure in the joint as a result of either glue failure or wood fiber failure.

Sounds plausible.